UiiiiiiiiHMH 


AMERICANS 
AND  THE  BRITONS 


AMERICANS  AND 
THE  BRITONS 


BY 

FREDERICK  C.  DE  SUMICHRAST 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

1914 


COPYRIGHT,  1914,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO 


H.  C.  S., 
D.  H.  M., 
J.  T.  K., 


AND  MY  MANY  OTHER  BELOVED  STUDENTS  IN 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  AND  RADCLIFFE  COLLEGE, 
IN  GRATITUDE  FOR  THE  MANY  HAPPY  YEARS 
SPENT  WITH  THEM  AND  THEIR  COMPATRIOTS 


297591 


NOTE 

Owing  to  the  European  War  and  the  consequent  un 
certainty  of  trans- Atlantic  travel  at  the  time  of  the  pub 
lication  of  this  work,  the  author,  who  lives  in  England, 
was  unable  to  read  final  proof. 


INTRODUCTORY 

If  any  apology  be  required  for  the  appearance  of 
yet  another  book  on  the  United  States,  which  the 
writer  does  not  admit,  it  can  readily  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  a  country,  and  the  people  inhabiting  that 
country,  present  ever  varying  points  of  view  to  the 
student;  that  what  strikes  one  observer  as  the  most 
significant  characteristic,  appears  to  another  of 
slight  importance. 

And  impressions  and  observations  differ  likewise 
according  to  the  temperament,  the  education  and 
the  opportunities  enjoyed  by  those  on  whom  or  by 
whom  they  are  made.  The  traveler,  especially  the 
man  or  woman  of  high  social  standing  who  comes  to 
the  United  States  furnished  with  letters  of  introduc 
tion  into  the  best  society,  and  who  hurries  from  city 
to  city,  from  East  to  West,  from  South  to  North, 
carries  away  images  and  recollections,  and  receives 
and  gives  a  very  different  notion  of  the  country  and 
the  people  from  that  which  will  be  conveyed  by  one 
who  has  long  lived  in  the  land,  who  has  mingled 
familiarly  and  intimately  with  the  people,  who  has 
seen  them  not  in  functions  and  hospitable  entertain 
ments  only,  but  has  shared  their  life  in  every  detail. 

Both  these  views  of  the  country  are  useful  and 
both  may  aid  in  forming  a  just  conception  of  what 

vii 


INTRODUCTORY 

the  United  States  and  its  inhabitants  really  are. 
The  impressions  of  the  swiftly  hurrying  traveler 
not  unfairly  represent  the  way  in  which  the  outward 
differences  in  manners  and  customs  strike  the  ob 
server  who  has  been  brought  up  in  another  and  older 
civilization.  Even  when  these  impressions  are  un 
favorable — and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  at  times  this 
is  the  case — they  at  least  show  the  inhabitant  of  the 
country  the  points  that  prove  offensive  or  displeas 
ing  to  the  stranger ;  where  they  are,  and  that  is  more 
frequent,  pleasant  as  well  as  vivid  they  equally  indi 
cate  what,  in  the  national  character  or  in  the  habits 
of  the  people,  appears  engaging  to  the  outsider.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  are  impressions  only,  and  do 
not,  or  ought  not  to,  pretend  to  be  more,  for  while 
it  will  be  granted  that  a  trained  observer  will  rapidly 
and  accurately  note  the  most  important  points,  yet 
trained  observers  are  not  numerous. 

The  dweller  in  the  land  loses,  unquestionably,  the 
sense  of  vivid  contrast  which  imparts  charm  to  the 
work  of  the  impressionist  writer.  The  strangeness 
of  many  things  has  become  dulled  by  habit,  and  he 
views  them  in  a  totally  different  light.  He  has 
passed  the  stage  of  outward  observation  only  and 
has  reached  that  of  inward  questioning.  He  has 
learned  that  many  things  which,  on  the  surface,  are 
utterly  unlike,  are  in  reality  not  far  apart;  he  has 
recognized  that  others  whose  purely  external  simi 
larity  has  caused  them  to  pass  unnoticed,  are  in 
their  very  essence  antagonistic.  He  seeks  rather  to 
ascertain  the  causes  at  work  in  the  evolution  of  a 
society  which  presents  evident  differences  and  occult 

viii 


INTRODUCTORY 

ones ;  to  discover  the  laws  which  govern  the  develop 
ment  of  beliefs  generally  held,  the  purport  of  certain 
tendencies. 

This  makes  his  work  different  in  every  particular : 
it  is  no  longer  a  series  of  impressions,  brilliant, 
vivid,  but  impressions  merely ;  it  becomes  an  attempt 
to  study  an  interesting  race,  a  country  which  al 
ternately  excites  enthusiasm  and  provokes  exaspera 
tion;  which  offers  unequaled  opportunities  for  per 
sonal  action  and  success,  and  which  at  the  same  time 
not  infrequently  discourages  by  its  very  fierceness 
of  effort;  which  proclaims  the  existence  of  liberty 
on  every  occasion  and  sets  up  simultaneously  some 
of  the  most  tyrannical  forms  of  repression  and  in 
justice;  a  country  where  speech  is  of  the  freest  and 
the  wildest  ambition  may  be  gratified,  yet  where  men 
are  often  afraid  to  speak  their  minds  and  might  is 
frequently  right;  where  democracy  triumphs  in  out 
ward  seeming,  and  autocracy  oft  rules  more  truly 
than  in  more  than  one  of  the  Old  World  empires; 
where  politics  is  the  pursuit  of  the  many  and  true 
public  spirit  the  appanage  of  the  relatively  few; 
where  gold  is  the  one  god  of  many;  where  poverty 
stalks  rampant  by  the  side  of  extreme  luxury,  and 
where  noblest  ideals  are  the  sure  stay  of  countless 
thousands,  and  generosity  intelligent  as  well  as  lav 
ish — a  country,  in  short,  of  contrasts  the  most 
striking,  the  most  interesting,  and  where  may  be 
studied  the  steady  growth  of  all  that  makes  for  the 
best  and  the  highest  in  public  and  in  private  life, 
albeit  veiled  to  the  ordinary  spectator  by  the  multi 
tudinous  details  of  every-day  life,  the  fuss  and  ex- 

ix 


INTRODUCTORY 

citement  of  a  part  of  the  daily  press  and  the  brazen 
manifestation  of  evil  and  corruption  and  repudiation 
of  duty  and  responsibility. 

Another  motive  had  its  share  in  the  writing  of  this 
book;  the  present  year,  1914,  completes  the  Century 
of  Peace  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain.  On  December  24,  1814,  was  signed  the 
Treaty  of  Ghent,  which  put  an  end  to  the  War  of 
1812.  Since  that  time,  though  war  has  been  more 
than  once  imminent,  hostilities  between  the  two 
great  countries  have  never  broken  out. 

This  is  not  because  differences  did  not  arise,  be 
cause  no  jealousies  smouldered,  to  blaze  up  sud 
denly.  On  the  contrary,  disputes  were  not  infre 
quent  and  at  times  very  bitter.  Yet  peace  was 
preserved.  And  if,  even  now,  antagonism  to  and 
suspicion  of  Great  Britain  are  exhibited  in  certain 
circles,  the  manifestation  is  sporadic,  the  feeling  in 
herited  and  traditional  rather  than  inspired  by 
knowledge  and  cause. 

Nor  does  the  antipathy,  under  present  conditions, 
become  very  active.  It  is  conceivable  that,  as  at 
the  time  of  the  Venezuela  episode,  a  wave  of  anti- 
British  feeling  may  cause  an  outburst  of  angry 
threatenings  and  very  abusive  language,  but  the 
sane  part  of  the  nation — and  it  is  by  far  the  largest 
— speedily  recovers  its  self-mastery,  and  it  becomes 
plain  that  the  solid  sense — the  horse  sense,  as  Amer 
icans  call  it — of  the  people  as  a  whole  is  averse  to 
conflict  with  Great  Britain,  or,  for  the  matter  of 
that,  with  any  other  power. 

This  does  not  mean  that  Americans  believe  in  that 


INTRODUCTORY 

false  peace  called  peace  at  any  price,  or  that  they 
are  less  jealous  of  the  honor  of  their  flag  and  the 
rights  of  their  citizens.  The  power  that  should  be 
foolish  enough  to  assume  that  and  to  act  provo 
catively  upon  that  mistaken  belief,  would  forthwith 
be  startled  by  the  stern  and  uncompromising  man 
ner  in  which  Americans  would  vindicate  themselves. 
But  their  large  common-sense  does  not  believe  in 
needless  war,  nor  does  it  believe  that  war  can  always 
be  avoided,  and  if  it  should  at  any  time  become  plain 
that  war  is  the  only  issue  out  of  a  difficulty,  it  would 
be  accepted  without  hesitation  and  waged  without 
faltering. 

The  United  States  does  not  hanker  after  naval  or 
military  glory.  Its  people  have  not  the  enthusiasm 
which  the  French  had  for  military  supremacy  and 
which  we  still  have  for  naval  achievements.  The  soul 
of  the  American  nation  is  set  neither  on  the  making 
of  many  dollars  exclusively  nor  on  militarism,  but  on 
honorable  peace,  on  the  development  of  civilization, 
on  the  purifying  of  national  life,  on  the  education 
of  its  multitudinous  foreign  components  in  the  ways 
of  righteousness  and  good  government.  It  is  con 
struction,  not  destruction,  that  appeals  to  the 
American. 

And  the  same  is  true  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
British  nation  throughout  the  Empire.  There  is  no 
desire  for  conflict  unless  inevitable,  no  hankering 
after  victories  in  the  field  or  conquest  of  further 
lands.  The  very  idea  of  Empire,  so  often  and  wil 
fully  misrepresented,  is  an  idea  of  peace  and  civili 
zation;  of  the  establishment  of  law  and  order;  of 

xi 


INTRODUCTORY 

the  training  of  races  for  self-government;  of  benefit 
to  humanity  at  large  and  not  of  advantage  to  the 
British  race  in  particular.  Superadded  to  this,  in 
the  case  of  the  United  States,  is  the  deep  feeling  that 
that  great  and  wonderful  country  was  in  the  main 
settled  and  first  developed  by  Britons ;  that  notwith 
standing  the  enormous  immigration  into  it  of  men 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  root  stock  of  the 
powerful  and  intelligent  nation  is  still  Anglo-Saxon ; 
that  the  same  glorious  traditions  are  shared  by 
them,  the  same  noble  literature  common  to  both,  the 
same  speech  spoken.  And  the  admiration  felt  for 
the  marvelous  progress  made  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  for  their  resolute  grappling  with 
problems  complex  and  at  times  dangerous,  their  de 
termination  to  vindicate  the  superiority  of  popular 
constitutional  government,  strengthens  the  tie  be 
tween  the  two  countries  from  the  British  side  at 
least,  and  certainly  in  a  large  measure  from  the 
American  also. 

Herein,  doubtless,  lies  the  essential  reason  of  the 
maintenance  of  peace  during  the  past  hundred 
years,  although  within  that  period  the  United  States 
has  fought  one  of  the  most  tremendous  wars  of 
modern  times,  and  Great  Britain  has  had  on  her 
hands  more  than  one  conflict.  Both  Americans  and 
Britons  have  recognized  the  superiority  of  peaceful 
intercourse  to  the  habit  of  provocation  and  fighting ; 
both,  as  democracies,  have  gained  freedom  from  the 
personal  ambitions  which,  in  Europe,  have  too  often 
animated  sovereigns  ruling  autocratically;  for  there 
is  a  vast  difference  between  declaring  war  without 

xii 


INTRODUCTORY 

consulting  the  people  who  are  to  furnish  the  food 
for  powder,  and  declaring  it  with  the  consent  of 
the  same  people. 

Further,  both  nations  have  similar  great  ideals — 
doubtless  not  clearly  perceived,  or  not  perceived  at 
all,  by  the  bulk  of  the  people — which  none  the  less 
sway  both  nations  and  have  determined  their  wise 
resolution  to  avoid  causes  of  quarrel,  and  if,  and 
when,  these  nevertheless  arise,  to  remove  them  by 
peaceful  and  common-sense  methods.  It  is,  in  short, 
the  high  idealism,  the  sane  outlook  on  their  relations 
with  each  other,  their  mutual  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  the  duty  of  such  mighty  powers  as  they  are  is 
not  to  destroy,  not  to  retard  civilization,  harmony 
and  peace,  but  to  establish  and  foster  them. 

Finally  the  consideration  that  a  sympathetic 
study  of  the  working  of  democracy — the  fruit  of 
years  of  life  among  Americans  of  all  sorts  and  con 
ditions  —  could  but  advantage  those  among  us 
Britons  who  are  concerned  to  educate  our  own 
democracy  and  to  direct  it  along  the  right  and  safe 
path,  or  rather  to  enable  it  to  direct  itself  wisely 
and  for  the  greater  good  of  humanity  at  large. 

In  the  past,  and  perhaps  even  in  the  present,  to  a 
limited  extent,  Britons  have  occasionally  laid  them 
selves  open  to  the  charge  of  viewing  certain  aspects 
of  political,  commercial,  industrial  or  social  life  in 
America  with  a  tinge,  if  not  of  contempt,  at  least 
of  superiority  on  our  part.  Such  things,  we  are 
convinced,  could  not  occur  within  the  compass  of 
our  own  Blessed  Isles.  The  smug  satisfaction  this 
evidences  has  of  late  received  rude  shocks:  high 

xiii 


INTRODUCTORY 

political  standards  have  been  greatly  lowered;  dem- 
agogism  has  reigned  almost  uncontrolled  and  the 
voice  of  the  class-divider  has  rung  throughout  the 
land  as  brazenly  as  ever  it  has  sounded  in  the 
United  States;  the  personal  honesty  of  men  in 
places  of  great  trust  and  of  vast  political  power  has 
been  properly  called  in  question;  "whitewash"  has 
been  applied  as  freely  as  ever  it  has  been  in  America 
by  any  Investigation  Committee  of  the  Senate  or  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  with  as  little  success 
in  the  end  with  the  public  at  large  and  without 
restoring  the  respect  forfeited  by  the  subjects  of 
the  process.  The  observance  of  law  and  the  due 
maintenance  of  order,  on  which  we  have  prided  our 
selves  while  we  scornfully  pointed  to  the  disregard 
of  them  in  the  Great  Republic,  is  no  longer  a  theme 
on  which  we  can  dwell  with  prideful  gratulation. 

But  no  more  than  we  despair  of  the  Old  Land  and 
the  people  within  it,  no  more  than  we  admit  that  the 
evils  which  have  grown  up  among  us  are  irremedi 
able,  is  the  American  democracy  to  be  despaired  of 
or  the  people  assumed  to  be  incapable  of  cutting 
out  the  rotten  parts  and  conserving  the  whole.  The 
democratic  form  of  government,  of  the  constitution 
of  society,  is  unquestionably  responsible  in  part  for 
these  evils  and  ugly  manifestations,  but  not  because 
these  are  inherent  in  democracy  but  simply  because 
democracy,  giving  larger  freedom  to  man  and  allow 
ing  a  wider  scope  for  his  activities,  has  not  yet  fully 
grasped  the  fact  that  a  sound  and  thorough  civic 
education  is  an  absolute  necessity.  The  more  edu 
cation  is  developed,  the  more  the  duty  of  the  citizen 

xiv 


INTRODUCTORY 

to  the  State  is  well  taught,  and  made  part  and  par 
cel  of  the  mind  of  the  dweller  in  democratic  lands, 
the  greater  will  be  the  progress  and  the  fewer  the 
evils. 

And  that  is  what  Americans  do  understand;  that 
is  the  end  to  which  they  are  tending,  nor  slowly. 

F.  C.  DE  S. 
MOUNT  EATON  MANOR, 
EALING,  ENGLAND. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY       .         .         .                  ;         .         .  vii 

CHAPTER 

I.  THE   OUTWARD  AND   VISIBLE       .         .  1 

II.  SOCIAL   CONSEQUENCES         .         .         .12 

III.  INDIVIDUALISM      .....  28 

IV.  MANNERS 41 

V.  PATRIOTISM  .         .....  66 

VI.  NATURALIZATION  .....  80 

VII.  DEMOCRACY  AND  MILITARISM        .         .  90 

VIII.  GOVERNMENT 106 

IX.  LAW 129 

X.  MARRIAGE 151 

XI.  WOMAN 174 

XII.  THE  GOLDEN  CALF      .         .         .         .  196 

XIII.  ART     .         .         .         .         .         .         .219 

XIV.  EDUCATION  ......  240 

XV.  THE  PRESS ..'  261 

XVI.  FOREIGN  RELATIONS    ....  277 

XVII.  ANGLO-AMERICAN  RELATIONS        .         .  SOS 

XVIII.  THE  PERIL  TO  DEMOCRACY  .         .        .  328 

XIX.  CONCLUSION  346 


AMERICANS  AND  THE  BRITONS 


THE    OUTWARD    AND    VISIBLE 

To  the  greater  number  of  visitors  to  the  United 
States — of  visitors,  that  is,  whose  means  enable 
them  to  travel  in  comfort  and  whose  object  is  not 
to  settle  in  the  country — the  striking  feature,  the 
one  that  at  once  forces  itself  upon  them,  is  the 
astonishing  material  prosperity  of  the  land.  Along 
with  this,  there  is  the  sense  of  unfinishedness,  of 
crudeness,  rawness  which  likewise  is  pressed  upon 
the  attention,  even  when  traversing  those  parts  of 
the  country  which  have  been  longest  settled  and 
which  are  closest  to  the  Old  World. 

The  first  is  a  point  to  which  their  attention  will 
be  immediately  drawn  by  whomsoever  of  the  in 
habitants  they  may  meet.  The  towering  sky 
scrapers,  the  vast  factories,  the  luxurious  hotels, 
the  costly  public  buildings,  the  "stores,"  filled  with 
richest  fabrics,  the  theaters  and  other  places  of 
amusement,  the  newspaper  offices,  the  insurance 
buildings,  rivaling  each  other  in  splendor,  the  great 
museums,  the  frequent  public  libraries ;  these  are  the 
things  which  the  passing  observer,  the  vagrant  tour 
ist  notes  and  is  made  to  note. 

1 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

There  is  little  of  art,  less  of  history,  although 
there  is  plenty  of  history  to  be  learned  and  enjoyed 
in  every  part  of  the  United  States ;  a  history  at  once 
picturesque  and  instructive,  with  a  fascination 
equaling  that  which  the  annals  of  the  Old  World 
exercise. 

Little  of  art,  not  that  the  average  American  will 
grant  this,  true  as  it  is ;  but  the  average  American 
has  not  the  real  esthetic  feeling  and  does  not  appre 
ciate  what  art  is  in  its  essence,  consequently  he  is 
more  than  satisfied;  he  is  proud,  of  the  specimens 
of  sculpture,  of  architecture,  of  painting  which  he 
exhibits  complacently  to  the  foreign  visitor  as  evi 
dence  of  the  superiority  in  this,  as  in  every  other 
respect,  of  his  nation  to  the  effete  populations  of 
Europe. 

But  the  signs  of  material  prosperity  are,  after  all, 
those  of  which  he  may  be  proudest,  for  they  present 
an  aspect  of  American  life  which  is  full  of  signifi 
cance.  They  constitute  the  outward  and  visible 
symbol  of  the  marvelous  development  of  the  land  and 
its  resources,  and  of  the  intense  energy  of  its  peo 
ple.  Yet  it  is,  after  all,  of  a  far  more  interesting, 
far  more  significant,  vital  force  unceasingly  at  work 
in  the  country  and  among  the  people. 

The  United  States — America,  as  it  is  commonly 
called — is  a  democratic  country,  and  it  is  in  the 
study  of  the  working  and  consequences  of  the  demo 
cratic  principle  that  the  chief  peculiarities  of  the  in 
habitants,  native  and  foreign-born,  can  best  be 
understood.  There  are  lessons  to  be  drawn  from 
the  democratic  feelings  and  habits  of  the  people 


THE    OUTWARD    AND    VISIBLE 

which  escape  the  casual  visitor,  apt  to  observe 
merely  certain  external  results,  without  perceiving 
or  seeking,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  to  search 
out  and  grasp  the  causes  which  have  brought  about 
these  results,  themselves  indications  of  deeper  effects 
which  affect  the  whole  mental  attitude  of  the  race. 

Every  European  notices,  for  instance,  the  re 
grettable  lack  of  manners.  He  is  fairly  certain  to 
be  exasperated  by  the  rudeness  of  the  majority  of 
people  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact ;  to  be  mad 
dened  by  the  total  absence  of  politeness  on  the  part 
of  persons  whose  position  would,  in  a  European 
country,  insure  civility  if  not  cordiality.  He  can 
not  stomach  the  indifference  to  rank,  such  as  it  is, 
and  especially  to  rank  as  he  is  accustomed  to  re 
gard  it,  that  is,  as  entitling  the  holder  to  a  certain 
amount  of  deference,  to  a  stated  degree  of  regard. 
The  off-handedness  of  the  servant,  the  rudeness  and 
shortness  of  the  shop-girl,  the  boorishness  of  the 
casual  employee,  the  unconcern  of  the  official,  the 
familiarity  of  the  colored  porter  on  the  railways — 
all  these  things  strike  him  as  an  offense  against 
the  very  foundations  of  social  life. 

Unquestionably  rudeness  and  lack  of  civility  are 
much  in  evidence  in  the  ordinary  intercourse  of  life 
in  the  United  States;  respect  and  attention  are  not 
frequently  to  be  met  with,  and  roughness  and  in 
difference  are  characteristic  of  many  of  the  people 
with  whom  one  comes  into  touch.  It  is  not  pleasant 
to  note  the  naive  selfishness  which  prevails  as  the 
rule  of  conduct  of  so  many  in  the  community;  it 
is  painful  to  mark  the  disregard  of  those  simple 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

amenities  which  tend  to  soften  the  daily  round  of 
duty,  but  these  conditions  are  merely  the  conse 
quences  of  the  failure  of  democracy  in  certain  direc 
tions  and  which  manifest  themselves  more  than  any 
where  else  in  the  United  States,  though  not  unknown 
in  parts  of  the  Old  World.  Further,  this  failure 
is  mainly  in  unimportant,  or  comparatively  un 
important  matters,  while  the  success  of  democracy 
is  very  evident  in  deeper  and  more  vital  ones. 

Unhappily  the  European  does  not  usually  en 
deavor  to  discover  the  reason  of  this  condition,  and 
is  satisfied  with  condemning  the  people  and  their 
democracy  in  the  lump,  instead  of  seeking  the  cause 
and  thereby  being  enlightened  and  interested.  For 
there  is  a  cause,  a  reason,  for  every  manifestation, 
and  simply  to  be  disgusted  and  to  give  up  is  a 
poor  way  of  attaining  knowledge.  It  is  not  neces 
sary  to  look  far  for  the  origin  of  the  mannerlessness 
of  the  bulk  of  the  population,  and  the  process  is 
entertaining  in  itself.  And  once  the  cause  has  been 
discovered,  the  European,  if  a  person  of  sense,  will 
readily  forgive  for  the  sake  of  the  information  he  has 
acquired. 

But  it  must  be  added  that  it  is  not  easy  for  the 
passing  traveler  to  carry  out  such  an  investigation, 
and  that  even  if  he  attempts  it,  the  knowledge  he 
gains  may  fail  to  reconcile  him  to  habits  so  different 
from  those  he  is  accustomed  to.  Life  in  the  country 
for  a  period  of  time,  the  longer  the  better,  is  requi 
site  to  understand  any  people.  Impressions  have 
their  value,  and  from  the  comparison  of  the  impres 
sions  of  numbers  of  intelligent  travelers,  even 

4 


THE    OUTWARD    AND    VISIBLE 

though  they  be  purely  superficial,  the  native  will 
obtain  a  distinct  notion  of  the  way  in  which  he 
appears  to  the  outsider  who  has  watched  him  for  a 
brief  period  in  his  own  surroundings.  And  these 
impressions  should  not,  as  is  generally  the  case,  be 
dismissed  with  contempt  as  unworthy  of  attention, 
because,  as  is  alleged,  they  represent  imperfect 
views  and  crude  conceptions.  They  are  no  more 
than  impressions,  it  is  true,  but  impressions  count 
for  much  in  daily  life.  Doubtless  they  do  not  rep 
resent  the  people  as  they  really  are,  but  they  do 
represent  them  as  the  people  show  themselves  to  the 
passing  observer.  After  making  all  due  allowance 
for  national  and  temperamental  prejudices  and  pre 
possessions,  these  impressions  do  convey  a  partially 
correct  view  of  a  people's  character  and  certainly 
of  a  people's  ways. 

Now  the  impression  of  incivility  which  is  about 
the  very  first  one  receives  in  the  United  States,  far 
from  disappearing  after  a  time,  is,  on  the  contrary, 
intensified,  and  when  one  has  penetrated  the  secret 
cause  of  this  attribute  of  the  American  character, 
regret  is  felt  that  democracy  should  thus  act  upon 
the  intelligence  and  lead  to  a  disagreeable  view  of 
itself  at  the  very  outset.  What  this  cause  is  and 
how  it  affects  nearly  all  classes  shall  be  seen  later. 

As  for  the  material  prosperity,  it  is  impossible  to 
avoid  noticing  it,  even  if  the  inhabitants  could  con 
sent  to  avoid  drawing  attention  to  it.  It  stares 
one  in  the  face  everywhere,  it  is  insistent,  omni 
present.  Business  is  not  done  quietly  or  unobtru 
sively,  but  with  a  determination  that  all  men  shall 

5 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

know  that  business  on  a  vast  scale  is  being  carried 
on  under  their  very  eyes.  So  the  office  buildings 
soar  into  the  air ;  the  loftier  they  are  the  happier 
the  occupants.  Loftiness  involves  huge  cost,  and 
huge  cost  must  spell  unexampled  prosperity.  The 
American  is  singularly  concerned  to  have  the  tan 
gible  and  visible  proofs  of  his  success  continually 
before  his  eyes ;  the  mere  possession  of  success  does 
not  suffice ;  the  manifestation  of  it,  the  loud,  at  times 
blatant,  manifestation  must  translate  the  fact  for 
the  benefit  of  his  compatriots,  the  confounding  of 
the  foreigner  and  the  due  exaltation  of  himself.  A 
man  who  is  simply  and  modestly  rich  has  not  fulfilled 
his  duty  to  the  world  of  which  he  forms  a  part;  his 
wealth  must  be  spread  out,  as  it  were,  for  all  to  be 
hold.  Whatever  shape  it  may  assume,  it  must  be 
exhibited  and  attention  must  be  drawn  to  it,  the 
eyes  of  the  great  world  turned  upon  it. 

That  this  is  really  quite  unnecessary,  that  the 
signs  of  wealth  are  naturally  abundant  enough  and 
eloquent  does  not  strike  the  dweller  in  the  Land 
of  Millions.  Yet  no  intelligent  person  can  traverse 
any  large  part  of  the  land  without  perceiving  the 
wealth  of  it:  hosts  of  factories,  the  fleets  of  vessels, 
the  endless  trains  of  cars,  the  armies  of  workmen, 
the  far-stretching  cities,  the  innumerable  towns ;  all 
these  things  speak  most  eloquently  of  the  prosperity 
of  the  United  States.  But  they  are  not  enough  for 
the  average  American,  whose  great  standard  of 
success  at  present  is  precisely  Money,  in  some  shape 
or  other,  but  Money  first  and  last. 

Thus  the  impression  one  receives,  and  which  deep- 
6 


THE    OUTWARD    AND    VISIBLE 

ens  the  longer  one  lives  in  the  country  and  enters 
into  the  life  and  beliefs  of  the  inhabitants,  is  that  of 
the  extraordinary  and  disproportionate  importance 
of  Money.  It  has  become  the  True  God  of  millions 
of  Americans :  the  deity  they  worship  with  a  fervor 
and  devotion  the  Christian  may  well  envy.  The 
God  of  Gold  is  in  truth  the  Lord  of  the  Land,  and 
democratic  as  the  people  are,  they  are  almost  a 
unit  in  bowing  the  head  and  bending  the  knee  before 
this  potent  sovereign. 

Almost,  but  not  quite.  For  here  manifests  itself 
a  trait  of  the  American  character  which  must  not  be 
lost  sight  of,  which  is  singularly  strong  and  con 
stant,  and  which  justifies  the  attraction  and  admira 
tion  which  the  nation  compels  from  fair-minded  ob 
servers.  That  feature  is  the  solid,  deep  common 
sense  happily  united  with  a  high  ideal. 

There  is,  among  Americans,  an  unconscious  tend 
ing  toward  higher  ideals,  which  is  the  fruit  of  teach 
ing,  of  tradition,  of  the  authority  of  great  thinkers 
and  writers,  of  a  perception,  vague  it  may  be  but 
none  the  less  existent,  that  there  is  something  higher 
than  Money  in  the  world,  something  nobler  than 
mere  material  success. 

All  Americans  do  not  exhibit  this  trait,  but  it  is 
so  general  that  it  influences  the  masses  even  while 
they  are  unaware  of  it.  It  is  not  readily  perceived 
by  the  casual  observer;  it  becomes  very  plain  to  the 
dweller  in  the  land,  provided  he  is  not  blinded  by 
prejudice  or  warped  by  prepossession.  It  acts  in 
a  subtle  but  very  efficient  way;  it  tinges  the 
thoughts  of  many  a  writer  in  the  daily  press ;  makes 

7 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

itself  felt  in  the  speeches  of  more  than  one  public 
man;  it  is  active  in  the  teaching  of  the  great  uni 
versities,  themselves  so  powerful  an  influence  in  the 
molding  of  character  and  consequently  of  public 
opinion  later,  when  their  graduates  go  forth  into 
the  world  to  take  their  share  in  the  government. 
It  is  particularly  vigorous  among  that  part  of  the 
population  which  is  not  herded  in  the  great  cities, 
where  the  incessant  rush  and  bustle  diminish  the 
opportunities  for  quiet  thought  and  sane  reflection* 
And  it  affects  the  nation,  the  race,  whenever  a 
crisis  occurs,  whether  it  be  political,  social  or  in 
dustrial.  It  is  at  the  very  times  when  it  would  ap 
pear  that  the  democracy  would  get  out  of  hand  most 
surely  and  hopelessly  that  it  suddenly  proves  itself 
amenable  to  wise  counsel  and  prudent  direction- 
Time  and  again  such  crises  have  arisen;  time  and 
again  they  have  been  peacefully  and  sensibly  solved, 
thanks  to  the  common  sense  of  the  great  bulk  of 
the  people,  to  the  occult  working  of  the  great  ideals 
which  are  after  all  what  the  people  of  the  United 
States  most  cherish.  Undoubtedly  they  worship 
money ;  unquestionably  material  success  has  for  them 
charms  which  too  often  blind  them  to  the  methods 
which  have  been  pursued  in  securing  it,  but  when 
the  test  comes,  when  the  moment  for  choosing  be 
tween  the  merely  material  and  the  truly  ideal  ar 
rives,  the  democracy  of  the  country  may  be  relied 
on  to  choose  rightly.  Then  neither  enormous  for 
tunes  nor  skill  in  intrigue  avail:  the  true  public 
opinion  once  roused  becomes  irresistible.  To  any 
one  acquainted  with  the  political  and  industrial  his- 

8 


THE    OUTWARD    AND    VISIBLE 

tory  of  the  United  States  within  the  last  twenty 
years,  more  than  one  instance,  more  than  one  irre 
fragable  proof  of  this  fact  will  readily  recur. 

Nor  is  it  difficult  to  account  for  this. 

Truly,  money  has  ever  and  in  all  countries  ob 
tained  recognition  as  a  source  of  power,  and  riches 
have  conferred  upon  their  temporary  holders  both 
influence  and  prestige,  though  it  is  at  least  question 
able  whether  it  ever  had  the  astounding  hold  upon 
minds  and  souls  that  it  has  in  the  United  States  at 
the  present  day.  But  it  has  not  always  been  so: 
before  the  War  of  Secession  other  ideals  held  sway, 
and  while  fortunes  were  sought  eagerly  and  passion 
ately  enough,  while  wealth  exercised  its  well-nigh 
unfailing  power,  none  the  less  it  was  not  the  domi 
nating  factor  in  public  and  private  life  which  it 
became  in  the  course  of  the  marvelous  development 
of  the  country  once  the  war  was  over  and  the  minds 
of  men  turned  once  more  to  the  business  of  pro 
ducing  instead  of  destroying.  Railways,  gold  and 
silver  and  copper  mines,  industries  of  every  kind, 
oil  springing  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  the  ex 
ploitation  of  the  vast  forests;  there  were  so  many 
sources  of  wealth,  rapid  and  immense,  which  caused 
men  to  rise  to  affluence  in  the  course  of  brief  years, 
which  gave  impulse  to  manufacturing,  to  commerce, 
and  opened  up  such  vistas  of  swift-gotten  wealth 
that  all  heads  were  turned  and  the  millionaire  be 
came  the  hero  of  society.  That  position  he  cer 
tainly  holds  more  securely  than  ever  before:  for 
tunes,  the  more  colossal  the  better,  are  the  one 
great  ideal  of  the  larger  number  of  the  people,  but 

9 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

these,  happily,  do  not  constitute  the  sole  ideal. 
Great  fortunes  are  not,  indeed,  at  all  the  ideal  of 
very  many  good  men  and  women. 

This  class,  and  it  is  extremely  numerous  in  the 
United  States,  has  high  aims  and  noble  purposes,  a 
dear  understanding  of  the  morals  of  life  and  a 
resolute  way  of  abiding  by  them  which  makes  for 
all  that  is  best  in  the  life  of  a  nation.  The  deceit- 
fulness  of  vast  wealth,  the  error  of  believing  that  it 
is  the  one  supreme  aim  to  the  attainment  of  which 
all  else  should  be  sacrificed,  is  a  doctrine  to  which 
they  do  not  subscribe,  cannot  subscribe,  for  it  is 
essentially  opposed  to  their  convictions.  They  have 
hitched  their  wagon  to  a  star,  and  move  forward  to 
the  consummation  of  ideals  far  beyond  those  of  the 
mere  money-getters.  This  class  is  the  very  salva 
tion  of  the  morality  of  the  country,  for,  while  little 
heard  of,  unpretentious,  quiet,  it  makes  its  influ 
ence  felt  and  compels  acquiescence  in  its  views. 

Yet  another  impression  which  residence  in  the  land 
confirms,  is  that  made  by  the  singular  mingling  of 
races  in  the  population  of  all  the  large  cities  in 
the  country,  but  more  especially,  perhaps,  in  those 
upon  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  types  met  with  in 
the  streets,  the  tongues  heard,  the  names  seen  on 
the  fronts  of  the  business  establishments,  surprise 
the  newcomer  and  strike  the  old  stager  by  their 
remarkable  contrasts.  What  has  become  of  the 
American  stock,  so-called,  soon  constitutes  a  prob 
lem.  Doubtless  that  American  stock  still  exists, 
but  it  is  not  over-much  in  evidence.  It  is  the  Ger 
man,  the  Spaniard,  the  Italian,  the  Russian,  the 

10 


THE    OUTWARD    AND    VISIBLE 

Hun,  the  Slav,  the  Greek,  the  Armenian,  the  Syrian, 
the  Chinese  and  above  all  the  Hebrew  who  appear 
to  dominate  in  point  of  numbers.  But  with  the 
peculiarly  foreign  appearance  of  much  of  the  popu 
lation,  with  the  unquestionably  foreign  origin  of 
so  many  of  the  names  blazoned  along  the  f^ades, 
one  notes  that  the  foreign  flag  is  conspicuous  by 
its  absence.  It  is  the  Stars  and  Stripes  which 
everywhere  wave  in  the  breeze.  Nowhere  is  the 
Union  Jack  visible  as  Old  Glory  is  in  London.  The 
American,  one  quickly  perceives,  is  intolerant  of 
any  ensign  but  his  own  within  his  wide  domains,  and 
courtesy  has  not  yet  so  far  progressed  as  to  permit 
of  a  display  of  national  flags  irrespective  of  political 
intention. 


n 

SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

No  one  of  the  impressions  noted  in  the  preceding 
chapter  is  incorrect  or  faulty,  and  if  all  the  impres 
sions  reported  by  visitors  to  the  United  States  were 
as  well  founded  as  these,  the  value  of  the  books  pub 
lished,  on  the  country  and  the  people,  would  be 
considerable  indeed. 

The  first  three  impressions  are  manifestations 
of  causes  which  have  been  long  at  work  molding 
American  character  and  which  are  still  working. 
They  have  acted  and  are  acting  not  on  the  genuine 
American  stock  alone,  the  fineness  of  which  grows 
more  and  more  upon  the  observer  the  longer  he  is 
in  contact  with  it,  but  also,  and  in  a  yet  greater 
degree,  upon  the  alien  races  which  immigration  has 
poured  in  countless  hordes  into  the  country.  Upon 
the  better  element  in  these  foreign  importations  the 
action  of  the  democratic  principle  has  been  bene 
ficial;  upon  the  greater  mass  it  has  been  unfavor 
able,  the  reason  being  that  the  democratic  principle 
requires,  in  order  to  be  fruitful  of  the  best  results, 
infinitely  more  preparation  of  the  individual  and  of 
the  mass  than  is  readily  perceived.  Thus  it  is 
that  the  native  American  stock  best  illustrates  the 

12 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

advantages  of  democracy,  as,  side  by  side  with  it, 
the  multitude  of  aliens  too  frequently  exhibits  its 
worst  faults. 

But  what  is  the  native  American  stock?  Here, 
the  expression  includes  the  descendants  of  the  British 
settlers  who  founded  the  great  colonies  and  the 
descendants  of  those  admirable  Dutch  families 
which  created  New  Amsterdam.  This  stock,  hap 
pily  far  from  being  exhausted,  forms  to-day  the 
backbone  of  the  nation  and  exerts  an  influence  far 
exceeding  that  which  its  comparatively  small  num 
bers  would  seem  to  justify.  It  is  this  small  body 
of  men  and  women,  yet  imbued  with  the  sound  prin 
ciples  of  the  forefathers,  which  maintains  the  best 
traditions  of  political  life  and  most  wisely  selects 
from  among  the  multitude  of  new  proposals  for 
progress  and  development,  those  which  most  nearly 
fulfill  the  conditions  which  make  for  peace,  order 
and  real  progress.  This  small  body  it  is  which  in 
spires  and  directs  the  tendency  to  reform,  where 
reform  is  plainly  required;  a  course  regrettably 
hindered,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  operation  of  the 
masses  of  foreigners  of  a  low  social  class  and  yet 
lower  intelligence,  who,  soon  obtaining  the  suffrage, 
form  an  army  of  corruptible  and  corrupted  voters, 
the  easy  prey  of  demagogues  and  unscrupulous  poli 
ticians.  And  to  the  native  American  stock  must  be 
added  the  better  elements  of  the  foreign  races,  more 
particularly  the  British,  the  Germans,  the  Swedes, 
the  Norwegians,  and  not  inconsiderable  number 
of  the  Irish,  the  Northern  immigrants,  as  a  rule, 
being  a  better  quality  than  those  of  the  Latin  races 

13 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

or  of  the  populations  of  Central  and  Eastern 
Europe. 

All  dwellers  in  the  United  States,  whether 
descendants  of  the  original  settlers,  newly  ar 
rived  immigrants,  or  sons  of  foreign  parents  since 
naturalized,  all  equally  hold  certain  beliefs 
and  are  swayed  by  certain  convictions,  the 
outcome  of  which  is  the  formation  of  a  type  of 
character  which  may  be  termed  American  and 
which  exhibits  the  peculiarities  already  dwelt  upon. 
These  beliefs  and  convictions  are  rarely  the 
result  of  knowledge,  so  far  as  the  bulk  of  the  popu 
lation  is  concerned,  still  more  rarely  of  study  and 
reflection;  they  are  traditional  now,  handed  down 
from  one  generation  to  another,  passed  on  from  one 
batch  of  immigrants  to  the  next,  but  always  ac 
cepted  with  simple  faith  and  artless  credulity.  This 
in  nowise  diminishes  their  power  over  the  masses; 
on  the  contrary,  there  is  no  faith  so  firm  and  un 
shakable  as  that  which  cannot  give  a  reason  for  its 
existence  but  simply  is. 

In  this  respect  the  Americans  are  not  unlike 
Europeans,  for  a  moment's  reflection  will  recall  that 
Europeans  likewise  cherish  certain  beliefs  which 
many  of  them  would  find  it  hard  to  explain  or 
justify.  And  it  is  in  the  conflict  between  these  dif 
ferent  convictions  that  the  peculiarities  of  each  race 
or  set  of  races  become  conspicuous. 

The  European  believes  in  the  distinction  between 
classes  and  translates  his  belief  into  practice. 
Theoretically  he  may  consent  to  the  dictum  that  all 
men  are  born  free ;  scarcely  will  he  accept  that  other 

14 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

part  of  it  which  declares  that  they  are  all  born 
equal.  Equality  in  the  abstract  he  may  grant;  so 
long  as  it  remains  an  abstraction  and  does  not  in 
trude  upon  the  organization  of  society,  he  tolerates 
the  notion  of  equality,  but  no  farther.  In  practice, 
the  European  is  the  opponent  of  social  equality,  and 
undoubtedly  he  is  largely  justified  in  his  position. 
He  clings  determinedly  to  the  division  of  mankind 
into  classes,  orders,  sets.  The  patrician,  the  sol 
dier,  the  naval  man,  the  merchant,  the  tradesman, 
the  literary  man,  the  artisan,  the  farmer,  the  la 
borer,  the  miner,  the  navvy  are,  he  will  concede, 
members  of  the  great  human  family:  in  one  sense, 
carefully  restricted,  they  are  all  equal,  but  in  fact 
they  are  widely  apart.  The  class  above  is  certain  of 
its  superiority  to  every  class  below  itself,  and  every 
individual  in  the  upper  class  takes  care  that  in  some 
way  his  superiority  shall  be  felt  and  acknowledged. 

The  American  has  the  rudiments  of  class  distinc 
tion,  but  he  strives  unceasingly  against  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  principle  and  the  practice,  and  the 
whole  constitution  of  the  society  of  which  he  forms 
a  part,  the  whole  manner  of  recruiting  that  society 
are  against  the  naturalization  of  the  European  sys 
tem.  The  latter  is  the  outgrowth  of  centuries  of 
slow  changes  in  civilization,  in  the  formation  of  the 
social  body.  It  has  not  been  transplanted  to  the 
American  continent  and  if  it  were  so  transplanted 
would  not  find  a  favoring  soil. 

The  individual,  not  the  class,  is  the  cardinal 
point  in  the  United  States.  The  family,  in  Europe, 
is  more  important,  even  in  this  twentieth  century, 

15 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

than  the  individual.  In  the  United  States  it  is  pre 
cisely  the  reverse.  In  Europe,  the  individual  must, 
and  does,  think  of  the  collective  interests  of  the 
family,  and  when  necessary  his  own  must  yield  to 
them;  in  the  United  States  the  interests  of  the  in 
dividual  are  apt  to  dominate.  The  child,  in  the 
Old  World,  is  subordinate;  in  the  New,  it  reigns. 
"The  Philippines  will  never  be  fit  for  self-govern 
ment,"  said  one  who  had  taught  among  them  for 
some  years,  "until  they  have  learnt  that  the  child 
rules  the  home."  This  is  a  conception  of  family 
relations  wholly  foreign  to  the  European  character, 
but  it  is  not  a  theory  in  the  United  States:  it  is  a 
fact.  The  child  does  rule  and  the  seniors  give  way 
to  him. 

Thus  one  of  the  first  consequences  of  the  applica 
tion  of  the  democratic  principle  is  the  development 
of  individualism,  of  a  strong  sense  of  the  superior 
value  of  the  individual,  of  a  profound  belief  in  the 
unlimited  rights  he  enjoys  by  virtue  of  birth,  and 
which,  in  the  language  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  that  earliest  textbook  of  the  American 
child,  are  "unalienable." 

But  "birth,"  in  the  meaning  attached  to  the  word 
in  Europe,  is  a  thing  unknown  in  the  United  States. 
That  is,  no  special  advantage  is  derivable  from  the 
fact  of  belonging  to  a  certain  family.  The  name 
of  Washington  or  Lincoln,  of  Hamilton  or  Jeffer 
son,  is  not  in  any  way  in  itself  an  aid  to  a  man  or 
a  woman  engaged  in  carving  out  a  position.  There 
is  a  certain  very  restricted  advantage,  no  doubt, 
to  be  derived  from  connection  with  an  old  family, 

16 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

Puritan,  Pilgrim,  Cavalier,  or  Dutch,  but  the  mere 
fact  of  that  connection  does  not  confer  on  the  pos 
sessor,  save  in  a  singularly  narrow  circle,  any  pres 
tige  or  aid  him  to  attain  to  any  particular  position. 
The  family  as  such  cannot  and  does  not  wield  influ 
ence.  It  may  admit  or  reject  a  candidate  for  admis 
sion  to  its  own  social  circle,  but  beyond  that  it  is 
practically  powerless  to  affect  the  career  of  the 
individual.  It  is  good  to  belong  to  an  old  family, 
unquestionably,  and  to  do  so  is  not  a  handicap,  for 
mankind  recognizes  instinctively  that  a  line  of  hon 
orable  men  and  women  confers  on  the  descendants  a 
certain  measure  of  respectability  while  involving  at 
the  same  time  a  certain  measure  of  responsibility. 
But  the  connection,  while  it  may  be  of  some  slight 
service  to  the  beginner  in  life,  will  not  carry  him 
through  life  if  he  prove  useless  or  unworthy.  A 
man  must  "make  good,"  as  the  phrase  is ;  must  give 
proof  that  he  is  in  himself  worth  something,  can 
make  his  own  way,  and  does  not  depend  on  the  for 
tuitous  accident  of  birth  for  the  position  he  occu 
pies  or  seeks.  This,  indeed,  is  an  essential  difference 
between  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 

All  men  are  "born,"  in  the  United  States,  for  all 
men  are  born  equal.  This  is  the  cardinal  principle 
which  is  instilled  into  the  minds  of  all  American 
children  from  the  moment  their  intelligence  is  able 
to  grasp  it.  "All  men  are  born  free  and  equal." 
The  phrase  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  make-up  of  the  American;  it  permeates  his 
whole  life;  colors  his  every  view  of  his  relations 
toward  his  fellowmen;  reacts  upon  his  treatment 

17 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  foreign  nations.  It  is  the  shibboleth  of  the 
people,  the  one  truth  to  which  they  hold  fast,  what 
ever  uncertainty  they  may  feel  concerning  other 
matters. 

These  two  ideas  of  liberty  and  equality  go  far  to 
explain  the  attitude  of  the  Americans  and  their 
conduct  in  the  daily  intercourse  of  life.  It  is  not 
that  they  all  realize  it  or  consciously  act  upon 
them,  for  the  act  is  as  a  rule  wholly  unconscious 
and  almost  instinctive.  They  know  themselves  to 
be  free  men;  they  believe  themselves  freer  than  any 
other  men  on  the  face  of  the  earth;  they  are  well 
aware,  individually,  that  they  have  no  superiors :  all 
are  equal.  This  is  utterly  different  from  the  state 
of  mind  of  the  European.  The  patrician  there  is 
assured  of  his  superiority ;  respect  is  due  him ;  he 
does  not  look  for  it,  does  not  ask  for  it:  it  comes  of 
itself.  It  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  life  of  his  in 
feriors  to  respect  him  and  to  exhibit  that  respect 
as  is  breathing.  The  inferior  does  not  dream  of 
looking  on  the  noble  as  his  equal.  He  does  not, 
generally  speaking,  conceive  the  idea  that  he  may 
be  just  as  good  as  the  great  man  who  wears  a  title. 
Such  thoughts  may  enter  the  mind  of  a  Radical,  of 
a  Socialist,  of  an  Anarchist,  but  not  the  mind  of  a 
reasonable  man  "properly  brought  up."  To  that 
man  the  world  is  made  up  of  classes  and  the  aris 
tocrat  belongs  to  the  highest,  the  most  select,  the 
most  stand-off.  The  aristocrat  may,  without  fear, 
show  himself  friendly  to  those  socially  beneath  him: 
his  condescension  can  never  be  mistaken  for  an  ad 
mission  of  equality;  it  remains  condescension, 

18 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

gracious,  courteous,  as  becomes  a  being  who  dwells 
in  a  higher  sphere. 

Now  this  is  utterly  opposed  to  American  ideas. 
Mere  birth  can  never,  in  that  country,  confer  such 
marked  privileges  or  so  completely  differentiate  a 
man  or  a  woman  from  his  or  her  fellow-Americans. 
Money  will ;  wealth  does ;  for  Money  is  the  supreme 
power  in  the  land,  and  is  worshiped  accordingly. 
All  the  honor,  all  the  respect,  all  the  awe  which  are 
the  portion  of  rank  in  the  Old  World  are  the  por 
tion  of  Money  in  the  New,  and,  next  to  Money, 
personal  power,  personal  ability,  talent,  genius.  It 
is  literally  true,  in  the  United  States,  that  "the 
rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp,  the  man's  the  man 
for  a'  that." 

Hence  the  vast  difference  in  the  conduct  of  life, 
the  vanishing  of  those  amenities  which  had  their 
foundation  in  the  realization  of  superiority  on  the 
one  hand,  of  inferiority  on  the  other.  Hence  the 
lack  of  manners,  the  unpleasant  frequency  of  sheer 
rudeness.  All  the  manifestations  which  constitute 
civility,  politeness,  are  unconsciously  usually,  con 
sciously  not  infrequently,  looked  upon  as  badges, 
expressions  of  a  condition  which  does  not  exist  and 
must  not  be  permitted  to  exist  in  a  democratic 
country.  Comparatively  few  Americans  have  read 
Locke  and  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau,  but  too  many  of 
them  behave  as  if  they  had  laid  to  heart  the  pre 
cepts  of  the  Genevese  philosopher.  The  teachings 
of  the  Contrat  social  found  fertile  ground  in  Amer 
ican  minds  and  in  the  minds  of  the  innumerable  im 
migrants,  and  they  have  resulted  in  a  large  crop  of 

19 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

self-satisfaction  and  also,  it  must  be  added,  of  self- 
deception. 

The  American  is  continually  taught,  from  the  mo 
ment  when  he  is  capable  of  understanding  the  mean 
ing  of  words  and  ideas,  that  he  is  one  of  a  race  of 
free  men.  It  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  of 
the  only  race  of  free  men,  and  although,  when  he 
grows  up  and  becomes  capable  of  observing  for 
himself — which  he  does  not  always  do — he  may  con 
clude  that  the  freedom  so  loudly  boasted  of  is  in 
many  respects  entirely  illusory  and  fictitious,  he 
nevertheless  clings  to  his  fetish;  he  insists  on  mak 
ing  himself  believe,  in  the  face  of  abundant  proof  to 
the  contrary,  that  equality  is  in  very  sooth  the 
foundation  of  his  form  of  government.  He  learns 
very  early  from  those  around  him,  from  their  atti 
tude  toward  their  fellows,  to  act  independently  of 
others,  to  think  of  himself  first,  last  and  all  the 
time.  He  is  Sovereign;  others  may  be  sovereigns 
also,  and  they  claim  to  be,  but  their  sovereignty 
lacks  something  of  the  completeness  which  marks  his 
possession.  The  truest  democrat  is  he  who  is 
most  convinced  of  his  innate,  inborn,  natural  su 
periority  to  everyone  else.  And  this  species  flour 
ishes  in  luxurious  and  most  unpleasant  abundance 
in  the  United  States. 

This  mode  of  thought,  translated  into  action, 
rubs  the  European  on  the  raw,  for  the  latter,  ac 
customed  to  the  traditions  of  class  distinction,  of 
courtesy,  of  respect  from  "inferiors,"  of  amenity 
in  the  daily  intercourse  of  life,  cannot  understand  a 
condition  of  things  so  completely  at  variance  with 

20 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

his  own  ingrained  notions.  Unaccustomed  to  meet 
with  cool  indifference  he  meets  with  it  not  occa 
sionally,  but  continually,  and  therefore  resents  it 
and  exclaims  against  it. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  while  all  this  is 
true  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  people,  there  are 
charming,  if  rare,  exceptions.  Not  all  Americans 
are  absolutely  mannerless ;  there  are  degrees,  and 
the  well-bred  American,  man  or  woman,  is  the  peer 
of  any  high-bred  European.  But  it  is  too  pain 
fully  the  fact  that  this  sort  of  exception  is  not  much 
met  with  in  daily  life,  and  the  other  type,  the  char 
acteristic  type  is  also  the  commonest. 

Then  words  have  a  different  meaning,  very  often, 
in  the  United  States  from  that  they  bear  in  the  Old 
World,  and  this  constitutes  a  further  obstacle  to 
the  ready  apprehension  of  the  real  character  of 
Americans.  The  European  has,  for  instance,  been 
accustomed  his  life  long  to  attach  a  certain  definite 
sense  to  the  name  "gentleman"  or  "lady."  He  in 
stinctively  restricts  these  appellations  to  well-born, 
well-educated,  well-mannered  people.  They  are  not 
by  him  applied  indiscriminately  to  Tom,  Dick  and 
Harry  and  their  female  congeners.  But  because 
class  distinctions  do  not  exist  in  the  United  States, 
or  exist  merely  in  an  atrophied  form  and  on  slight 
sufferance,  these  words  have  changed  in  applicabil 
ity  and  are  used  without  thought  by  everyone,  by 
the  masses  as  well  as  the  better  educated. 

The  European  accepts  the  existence  of  a  distinc 
tion  between  himself  and  others,  and  this  without, 
in  most  cases,  parting  with  any  shade  of  self- 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

respect.  If  he  be,  say,  a  laborer,  he  understands 
that  there  is  a  great  gulf  between  him  and  the 
"gentry."  That  abyss  he  little  dreams  of  bridging 
— probably  he  believes  that  it  has  always  existed, 
and  if  the  teachings  of  the  Socialists  lead  him  to 
entertain  other  opinions,  these  are  rather  in  the  di 
rection  of  compelling  improvement  in  his  wages  than 
in  that  of  elevating  himself  socially.  The  scheme 
of  which  he  is  a  part  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  order 
of  creation.  He  has  been  taught  quite  early  and 
with  much  repetition  that  he  belongs  to  one  class 
and  the  "gentry"  to  another,  while  higher  still 
shines  the  nobility,  the  persons  composing  those  en 
viable  classes  being  a  superior  race  of  beings,  hu 
man,  no  doubt,  but  of  a  race  of  which  naught  can 
ever  make  him  a  member.  His  duty,  as  he  has  been 
taught  in  his  catechism,  is  delightfully  simple  in 
this  regard;  it  is  to  order  himself  lowly  and  rever 
ently  to  all  his  betters. 

The  American  is  quite  incapable  of  seeing  this: 
for  him  there  is  no  hard  and  fast  barrier  separating 
him  forever  from  the  heights,  however  dizzy,  he 
may  be  ambitious  to  climb;  there  is  no  rank  to 
which  he  may  not  aspire,  to  which  he  may  not  at 
tain;  there  is  no  position  which  may  not  be  his  if 
only  he  exerts  himself  and  possesses  the  ability  to 
"get  there."  The  day  laborer  will  not  always  re 
main  in  that  condition;  the  proof  is  that  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  others  who  began  life  in  an  hum 
ble  station  are  now  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the 
privileges  and  delightful  attentions  which  the  pos 
session  of  money,  of  much  money,  of  very  much 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

money  entails.  There  is  no  valid  reason,  given  that 
he  is  himself  endowed  with  ability  and  strenuous 
perseverance,  why  he  himself  should  not,  within  a 
measurable  number  of  years,  reach  exactly  the  same 
position.  Fortune  will  smile  on  him  as  on  others. 
They  are  in  nowise  different  from  him,  these  happy 
ones  of  the  world,  save  that  they  "have  made  their 
pile"  and  he  still  has  his  to  make.  But  make  it 
he  can  and  will,  stand  where  they  stand,  enjoy  what 
they  enjoy.  It  all  lies  in  his  own  hands.  He  can 
succeed;  he  can  get  there.  Thus  no  thought  of 
gazing  upon  the  successful  beings,  who  are  bask 
ing  in  the  limelight  of  the  daily  press  and  inhaling 
the  incense  offered  up  by  the  fashion  reporter,  as 
being  superior  or  cast  in  a  different  mold  from 
himself,  ever  enters  his  brain.  It  cannot  enter  it. 
All  men  are  born  free  and  equal.  He  is  as  good  as 
any  of  them,  at  bottom;  just  at  present  they  have 
more  of  the  riches  the  country  holds  in  store  for 
the  strong  and  the  able,  but  he  is  able  and  strong 
too,  and  part  of  these  riches  will  assuredly  come 
to  him.  Wherefore  then  should  he  experience  or 
betray  the  faintest  symptom  of  inferiority?  He 
does  not  and  never  will.  He  has  no  "betters"  to 
ward  whom  he  must  order  himself  "lowly  and  rev 
erently." 

The  European  cannot  share  that  point  of  view 
at  once ;  at  least  it  is  not  often  the  case  that  he 
does  so.  Doubtless  a  little  observation  and  a  little 
reflection  would  modify  his  unfavorable  opinion, 
diminish  his  loathing,  but  a  man  who  is  annoyed, 
angry,  outraged — for  he  feels  outraged,  the  Euro- 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

pean,  under  such  circumstances — does  not  reflect. 
What  he  feels  he  expresses ;  what  makes  him  indig 
nant,  he  blames,  and  as  he  hears  continual  talk  of 
equality,  he  damns  equality,  as  understood  and  prac 
ticed  in  the  United  States,  in  the  most  whole-hearted 
way. 

Yet  he  is  wrong.  The  manifestation  undoubtedly 
is  unpleasant,  but  the  sense  of  equality  in  itself  is 
one  of  the  most  potent  factors  and  most  beneficial 
forces  at  work  among  the  people.  This  much  may 
be  granted  to  the  irate  European:  that  the  fact, 
undeniable  as  it  is,  is  not  at  first  readily  apparent. 
It  is  at  the  root,  none  the  less,  of  the  success  of 
unnumbered  thousands  who,  in  the  European  coun 
tries  yet  bound  by  age-long  traditions,  could  never 
have  risen  from  the  lowly  estate  wherein  they  were 
born.  It  is  the  secret  of  the  fortune  of  many  emi 
nent  men  who  have  found  it  possible  to  attain  that 
eminence  because  of  the  knowledge,  early  acquired, 
that  in  their  country  talents  and  merit  are  sure  to 
receive  their  reward  without  regard  to  considera 
tions  of  position  or  birth.  It  is  the  spur  which 
starts  many  a  man  and  many  a  woman  on  a  career 
which  eventually  proves  of  great  public  benefit.  It 
is  the  belief  which  upholds  many  a  lad  in  a  struggle 
which  one  of  his  condition  would  scarce  even  dream 
of  entering  upon  in  one  of  the  older  European 
lands.  Like  all  excellent  things  it  has  its  weak  side, 
its  defects,  its  disadvantages,  but  after  allowing  for 
all  these — and  the  sum  of  them  is  far  from  being 
insignificant — the  truth  stands  out  clear  and  im 
pressive  that  this  rooted  conviction  of  equality  is 

£4 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

one  of  the  mainsprings  of  the  development  of  the 
country  and  of  the  amazing  progress  of  the  nation. 

Not  even  in  France,  now  so  democratic  and  has 
tening  to  test  practically  the  still  more  advanced 
theories  of  Socialism,  not  even  in  France,  where  first 
was  proclaimed  that  all  careers  were  open  to  talent, 
and  where  now  the  Presidency  is  within  every  man's 
reach  as  was  the  marshal's  baton  within  the  reach 
of  every  soldier,  not  even  there  has  the  democratic 
principle  of  equality  produced  as  noteworthy  re 
sults  as  in  the  United  States.  France,  republican, 
democratic,  almost  socialistic,  retains  in  spite  of  all 
the  changes  and  violent  upheavals  through  which 
the  body  politic  has  passed,  in  spite  of  the  convul 
sions  which  have  radically  modified  social  conditions 
and  conferred  upon  the  middle  and  lower  classes  op 
portunities  undreamed  of  under  the  ancien  regime, 
France  is  even  yet  bound  by  habits  centuries  old, 
by  traditions  the  grasp  of  which  has  been  loosened 
but  not  wholly  cast  off,  by  beliefs  and  ideas  which 
even  the  progress  of  liberty  has  been  unable  to  alter 
greatly  or  to  destroy  utterly. 

Our  own  England  herself,  unquestionably  a 
democratic  country  and  tending  at  times  to  in 
cline  toward  socialism,  does  not  afford  to  the  ordi 
nary  man  a  tithe  of  the  opportunities  he  enjoys  in 
the  United  States.  Assuredly  talent  makes  its  way 
with  us,  and  that  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  is 
commonly  supposed  by  Americans,  who  are  so  prone 
to  be  and  remain  ignorant  of  conditions  in  our 
land;  undoubtedly  merit  has  its  reward,  the  masses 
enjoy  political  liberty,  and  the  lad  of  parts  may 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

hope  to  make  his  mark  in  time.  But  in  England 
class  distinction  is  still  an  established  fact,  a 
strongly  established  habit,  which  the  demagogue  has 
been  essaying,  with  far  too  much  success,  to  root  yet 
deeper  and  to  turn  into  a  cause  of  hatred.  And 
class  distinction  is  based,  after  all,  on  a  difference 
assumed  to  exist,  or  actually  existing,  between  in 
dividuals  of  the  same  people,  and  it  is  thus  antagon 
istic  to  the  principle  of  perfect  equality  which  in 
volves  the  element  of  the  particular  success  achieved 
in  the  United  States.  Liberty  may  be,  as  many 
affirm,  more  real  in  Great  Britain  than  in  America, 
but  it  is  true  also  that  mauger  the  partial  abridg 
ment  of  liberty  in  the  United  States,  the  opportuni 
ties  for  men  of  all  conditions,  of  all  degrees,  are 
larger  and  more  numerous  than  they  are  even  in  the 
right  little,  tight  little  island  itself. 

In  England  social  distinctions  are  most  power 
ful;  in  the  United  States  it  has  been  attempted  to 
make  them  so.  The  attempt  is  regularly  renewed 
and  as  regularly  fails ;  is  bound  to  fail,  for  the  up 
ward  pressure  from  below  is  incessant,  and  the  crop- 
ping-up  of  the  "inferior"  class  continuous.  It  is 
useless  and  hopeless  to  decree  that  such  and  such 
requirements  must  be  complied  with  ere  a  man  and 
his  family  may  be  recognized  by  a  select  class;  the 
man  simply  wishes  his  way  in  and  the  class  yields. 
At  need  he  creates  a  new  class.  The  class,  indeed, 
is  continually  changing:  the  exclusives  of  a  genera 
tion  ago  are  on  the  shelf  at  the  present  time,  and 
the  topmost  swells  of  to-day  will  find  themselves, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  relegated  to  compara- 

26 


SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES 

tive  obscurity.  The  rich  man  of  twenty  years  since, 
upon  whom  society  looked  as  the  embodiment  of  the 
graces  of  American  civilization,  has  been  wholly  sup 
planted  by  the  multimillionaire  of  the  day,  and  the 
latter  is  doomed  to  disappear  in  his  turn  as  a 
special  order.  There  is  no  permanence  to  social 
distinctions  in  the  United  States  so  far  as  these  are 
based  on  birth  as  in  the  Old  World,  on  position  ac 
quired,  on  riches  gained.  There  is  perpetual  change 
going  on,  and  the  success  of  those  who  have  sprung 
from  nothing  and  made  their  way  in  the  world, 
destroys  the  prestige  of  birth,  just  as  the  triumph 
of  those  who  have  won  world-wide  fame  by  intel 
lectual  achievements  or  deeds  of  merit  eclipses  the 
merely  dazzling  splendor  of  the  newly-rich. 


Ill 

INDIVIDUALISM 

The  most  marked  characteristic  of  democracy  as 
it  has  developed  in  the  United  States  is,  therefore, 
individualism,  that  is,  the  sense  in  each  man  or 
woman  of  his  or  her  own  importance,  an  importance 
derived  from  the  fact  that  all  are  equal.  It  is  un 
necessary  for  the  purpose  of  this  demonstration 
to  enter  at  present  upon  the  weakness  of  the  theory 
revealed  in  the  further  fact  that  women  and  negroes 
are  not  treated  as  being  the  equals  of  men  in  every 
respect. 

That  individualism,  which  is  frequently  carried 
to  the  extreme  of  simple  egotism,  affects  not  social 
relations  and  business  and  professional  opportuni 
ties  and  relations  only,  but  manifests  itself  as  a 
force  in  education,  in  legislation,  in  the  administra 
tion  of  the  laws,  in  their  application  in  the  courts 
of  justice.  It  tells  upon  the  army  and  the  navy; 
it  is  felt  in  the  religious  life,  and  universally  in  a 
totally  wrong  conception  of  the  true  relation  of  the 
individual  to  the  State. 

Indeed  it  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that 
much  of  the  evil  tendency  evident  in  the  intercourse 
between  labor  and  capital,  much  of  the  corruption 

28 


INDIVIDUALISM 

in  public  life,  much  of  the  sickening  sentimentalism 
which  condones  crime  and  makes  a  hero  of  the  crim 
inal,  thereby  lowering  the  public  standard  of  morals, 
is  due  to  the  action  of  this  element  in  democracy. 
It  is  not  oligarchy  or  autocracy  that  is  needed  to 
correct  it,  but  the  simple  recognition  of  the  fact,  so. 
completely  lost  sight  of  too  often,  that  democratic 
government  involves  on  the  part  of  those  who  live 
under  it  and  benefit  by  it,  the  discharge  of  duties 
toward  the  State  as  well  as  the  enjoyment  of  per 
sonal  rights  by  the  individual. 

The  irresponsible  individualist  abounds  in  the 
United  States ;  he  is  one  of  a  large  class,  out  of 
which  arise  the  grumblers,  adepts  at  finding  fault, 
shirkers  when  it  is  a  question  of  putting  their 
shoulder  to  the  wheel;  the  indefatigable,  but  very 
fatiguing  talkers,  who  spout  platitudes  on  every  oc 
casion  but  never  do  a  hand's  turn  to  improve  con 
ditions  ;  the  indifferent,  who  consider  it  beneath 
them  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the 
society  to  which  they  belong;  the  purely  ignorant, 
who  have  never  been  made  aware  that  they,  jointly 
and  severally,  are  directly  concerned  in  the  progress 
and  success,  first,  of  their  own  community,  next,  of 
that  of  humanity. 

As  the  individual  is  so  is  the  nation.  If  the  bulk 
of  the  citizens  cannot  and  do  not  regularly  dis 
charge  their  duties  to  the  community,  the  nation 
will  not,  for  it  cannot,  fulfill  its  purpose  in  the  ad 
vancement  of  humanity.  And  a  democracy  that 
loses  sight  of  humanity  and  its  needs  is  no  longer 
a  democracy,  for  it  fails  in  the  most  essential  of  its 

29 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

obligations,  since,  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
world,  no  nation  can  isolate  itself  and  declare  that 
it  will  confine  itself  solely  to  its  own  development, 
regardless  of  what  is  going  on  elsewhere. 

It  is  out  of  the  question  for  it  to  do  so,  no  mat 
ter  how  resolute  its  decision.  And  the  United 
States  least  of  all  perhaps,  even  though  at  the  pres 
ent  time  there  are  numbers  of  intelligent  people, 
educated,  patriotic,  who  lament  the  fact  that  the 
country  has  become  a  world-power,  who  express  the 
liveliest  wish  to  see  the  Philippines,  Porto  Rico, 
Hawaii  abandoned,  exactly  as  so  many  in  our  own 
land  have  in  years  gone  by  heartily  sought  to  dis 
member  and  restrict  the  Empire  and  are  apparently 
still  bent  on  doing  so.  These  Little  Englanders 
have  their  like  among  Americans  to-day,  in  men  who 
look  upon  outlying  possessions  as  being  merely  dan 
gerous  factors  in  international  embroilments. 

The  anti-imperialists  of  America  are  evidently 
blind  to  the  fact  that  even  were  their  views  adopted 
and  carried  out,  were  the  Panama  Canal  abandoned 
and  the  Zone  restored  to  Colombia,  their  country, 
through  its  enormous  trade,  its  varied  and  produc 
tive  industries,  its  immense  immigration,  its  impor 
tant  share  in  the  financial  affairs  of  the  world, 
its  concern  in  the  maintenance  of  universal  peace, 
must  inevitably  be  drawn  into  the  domain  of  world- 
politics. 

They  do  not  appear  to  see,  in  their  eagerness  for 
the  restoration  of  a  condition  of  things  long  since 
outgrown,  that  even  granting  their  country  could, 
by  some  miraculous  process,  be  thus  kept  apart  from 

80 


INDIVIDUALISM 

the  rest  of  the  world,  it  would  be  prevented  from 
being  so  by  its  very  nature  and  constitution.  For 
it  is  not  the  prodigious  material  development  of  the 
land  which  attracts  the  attention  of  thinkers  so 
much  as  the  overwhelming  importance  of  the  politi 
cal,  economic  and  social  problems  which  it  is  con 
tending  with  and  which  it  is  driven,  whether  it  will 
or  no,  to  endeavor  to  solve.  Never  has  the  experi 
ment  of  democratic  government  been  essayed  on  a 
scale  so  vast  as  in  the  United  States,  and  on  the 
outcome  largely  depends  the  ultimate  fate  of  this 
form  of  government  in  other  and  older  lands. 
Democratic  government  has  not  yet  been  conclu 
sively  proved  the  best,  that  is  as  understood  and 
applied  in  America.  Too  many  defects,  some  of 
them  fraught  with  almost  disastrous  consequences 
to  the  masses,  have  been  brought  to  light;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  such  numerous  and  patent  benefits 
have  resulted  from  it  that  the  attention  of  all 
thinking  people  is  forcibly  drawn  to  that  land  and  to 
the  efforts,  happily  more  and  more  successful,  made 
day  by  day  to  strengthen,  purify  and  develop  the 
government  of  the  people  by  the  people. 

All  nations,  all  great  nations  particularly,  owe  a 
duty  to  humanity  and  are  bound  to  fulfill  it.  But 
not  the  richest,  the  most  powerful  nation  can  dis 
charge  adequately  that  stupendous  task  if  the  units 
which  together  make  up  the  nation  are  indifferent 
to  or  ignorant  of  their  own  duties  to  the  nation  it 
self.  A  community  of  indifferent  individuals  will 
prove,  in  the  hour  of  need,  a  broken  reed.  It  may 
give  birth  to  a  strong  man,  to  a  heaven-sent  leader, 

51 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

but  the  greatest  leader  is  helpless  if  he  has  no  one 
to  lead,  or  if  those  who  should  follow  and  support 
him  have  never  learned  the  lesson  that  in  a  demo 
cratic  state  it  is  one  for  all  and  all  for  one,  and  not 
every  man  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the  hind 
most.  Democracies  are  apt  to  plume  themselves  on 
their  superiority  to  despotisms,  nay,  to  monarchies, 
even  to  democratic  constitutional  monarchies,  which 
is  quite  right  if  every  member  of  the  democracy 
does  his  work  and  fulfills  his  obligations  to  the 
State ;  but  if  any  large  number,  though  still  a  minor 
ity,  avoid  it,  the  despotic  government  will  surpass, 
in  effective  performance,  the  democratic. 

Under  a  despotic  government,  given  an  able  ruler, 
a  nation  may  accomplish  much.  The  individuals 
have  no  rights,  that  is  true;  their  will  does  not 
count;  they  know  one  thing  only:  to  obey,  but  they 
know  that  right  well.  Consequently  the  ruler  can 
carry  out  his  purpose  with  certainty.  Under  Louis 
XTV  France  rose  to  be  the  leading  nation  in  the 
world ;  under  Napoleon  the  Great  it  became  the  first 
military  power  in  the  universe.  The  purpose  of 
Louis  and  of  Napoleon  was  not,  in  point  of  fact,  the 
highest  and  noblest,  but  it  is  unquestionable  that  in 
the  efficacy  of  its  carrying  out  the  despotism  of 
the  one  and  of  the  other,  it  was  the  main  factor  of 
success. 

In  a  democracy  the  certainty  turns  to  uncer 
tainty.  Every  man  has  a  will,  more  or  less  strong; 
every  man  has  a  voice,  directly  or  through  his 
elected  representative,  in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  but 
not  every  man  is  equally  able  to  judge  sanely  and 


INDIVIDUALISM 

wisely  or  to  act  in  the  best  interests  of  the  com 
munity.  Every  will,  or  at  least  the  great  majority 
of  wills,  must  be  brought  into  comparative  har 
mony.  And  here  lies  the  difficulty  which  faces  a 
democracy  which  attempts  to  do  great  things.  Its 
efforts  may  be  irretrievably  ruined  at  any  moment, 
unless  the  individual  members  have  been  so  trained 
that  the  head  of  the  democracy,  the  delegate  en 
trusted  with  the  execution  of  the  purpose,  feels 
that  he  is  absolutely  and  surely  backed  by  the 
popular  will. 

In  a  democracy,  and  this  is  very  true  of  the 
United  States,  the  State,  or  Commonwealth,  as  it  is 
often  and  very  wisely  termed,  is,  theoretically,  the 
one  object  dear  to  each  and  every  member  of  the 
community;  practically,  it  is  mostly  the  individual 
who  is  dear  to  himself.  Unquestionably  there  is 
some  concern  for,  some  interest  in,  the  community, 
but  on  examination  that  will  be  very  generally  found 
to  occupy  a  subordinate  position  with  most  men  in 
the  country.  It  is  not,  with  the  great  majority,  a 
question  of  how  far  they  may  be  of  use  to  the  na 
tion  and  through  the  nation  to  humanity,  but  on 
the  contrary  how  far  the  community  can  be  of  ser 
vice  to  them  individually. 

At  the  time  of  the  assembling  of  the  convention 
which  drew  up  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as 
a  little  later  when  the  French  Assembly  produced 
the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  the  need 
really  was  for  an  unmistakable  affirmation  of  the 
rights  of  the  individual  as  against  the  power  of 
the  autocrat  in  the  one  case ;  of  a  legislative  as- 

33 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

sembly  across  the  ocean  in  the  other.  This  notion 
of  individual  liberty  was  necessarily  exaggerated, 
because  in  itself  so  singularly  attractive.  Men  in 
France,  the  colonies  in  America,  were  attracted  by 
the  notion  of  revolt  against  rule,  for  man  is  natur 
ally  indisposed  to  obedience  and  rebellious  to  rule. 
The  innate  tendency  is  to  complete  independence,  to 
the  assertion  of  unlimited  right.  The  individual 
is  willing,  as  a  general  rule,  to  have  law  and  order, 
provided  these  are  applied  to  compel  others  while 
not  interfering  with  himself. 

The  reform  propaganda  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  which  so  speedily  became  a  revolutionary 
propaganda  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  was 
summed  up  in  two  famous  instruments :  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  in  1776,  and  the  Declaration  of 
the  Rights  of  Man  in  1791,  the  latter  condensing  the 
principles  and  doctrines  which,  in  1789,  had  precipi 
tated  the  Revolution.  In  both  of  these  manifestos 
the  importance  of  the  individual  is  strongly  brought 
out,  and  the  very  weight  given  to  individual  right 
led  to  an  exaggerated  and  consequently  erroneous 
interpretation  of  it — erroneous  and  incomplete,  for 
while  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  upon  the  rights  of 
man,  of  the  individual,  no  mention  is  made  of  his 
duties,  although  there  can  exist  no  rights  without 
corresponding  duties.  In  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  as  in  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of 
Man  it  is  quite  plain  that  one  side  only  of  the  ques 
tion  was  considered  by  the  framers  of  these  cele 
brated  documents.  That  side  is  the  side  of  the  in 
dividual  and  his  rights ;  these  are  admirably  and 

34. 


INDIVIDUALISM 

lucidly  set  forth  in  both  documents.  No  one  wants 
to  part  with  one  shred  or  tittle  of  these  rights,  but 
in  this  age,  and  especially  in  a  democratic  country 
such  as  Great  Britain  and  yet  more  such  as  the 
United  States,  it  is  time  some  thought  were  bestowed 
upon  the  duties  of  the  individual  toward  the  state 
in  which  he  dwells  and  under  whose  fostering  care 
and  protection  he  makes  his  living. 

It  is  just  because  in  the  eighteenth  century  the 
rights  of  the  individual  were  scorned  or  denied  that 
so  much  importance  was  attached  to  them.  But 
what  was  appropriate  then  is  no  longer  so.  It  is 
time,  both  in  the  United  States  and  in  our  own  land, 
to  check  the  evils  of  democracy  by  recalling  to 
men's  minds  that  duties  are  inseparable  from  rights 
and  must  be  fully  discharged  if  the  rights  are  to 
be  fully  enjoyed. 

The  pernicious  doctrine  that  the  State  must  do 
everything  for  the  individual,  while  the  latter  need 
only  benefit  and  need  not  contribute,  has  been  sedu 
lously  spread  by  demagogues  and  partisans  of  an 
archy,  of  whom  there  is  ever  abundant  supply  in 
America,  until  the  doctrine  has  so  permeated  the 
great  body  of  the  masses  that  it  has  become  a  char 
acteristic  of  advanced  democracy. 

That  the  individual  should  have  an  excellent 
opinion  of  hknself  is  quite  natural;  very  often  he 
is  his  only  admirer.  So  long  as  this  personal  wor 
ship  does  not  blind  him  to  his  duties  and  responsi 
bilities  to  those  around  him,  it  is  comparatively 
harmless,  though  always  in  danger  of  being  ridicu 
lous.  Unfortunately  for  the  individual,  yet  more 

35 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

unfortunately  for  the  community,  this  tendency  al 
most  invariably  degenerates  into  narrowness  and  sel 
fishness  and  leads  to  deliberate  neglect  of  public 
duty. 

For  in  a  democracy,  everyone,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  shares — whether  he  understands  it  or 
not — in  a  common  responsibility  to  the  State.  And 
nothing  can  relieve  him  of  that  responsibility  save 
absolute  lunacy.  Every  member  of  the  State  is 
bound,  by  the  very  fact  that  he  is  a  member  of  it, 
to  devote  part  of  his  thoughts,  part  of  his  talent, 
part  of  his  power,  part  of  his  time  to  interests  other 
than  his  own  personal  preoccupations  and  purposes. 
He  is  false  to  the  trust  reposed  in  him  by  his  fel 
lows,  fails  to  fulfill  his  share  of  the  contract  he 
has  entered  into,  if  he  neglects  his  public  duty. 

For  every  member  of  the  commonwealth,  whether 
born  in  it  or  entering  into  it  as  an  immigrant 
naturalized  in  the  country,  binds  himself  to  become 
interested  in  the  working  of  the  community,  to  share 
in  its  administration,  to  aid  in  carrying  out  its  aims 
and  plans.  The  State  protects  him  in  his  life,  his 
liberty,  his  pursuit  of  happiness  and  worldly  pros 
perity.  It  guarantees  to  him  the  free  exercise  of  his 
abilities ;  offers  him  possibilities  of  advancement ;  af 
fords  him  advantages  which  are  important  factors 
in  his  success ;  adds  to  his  personal  value  the  worth 
of  the  community ;  fulfills  its  duties  toward  him  not 
perfunctorily  or  spasmodically  but  regularly  and 
thoroughly.  Therefore,  the  individual  is  bound  to 
carry  out  with  equal  fidelity,  with  equal  complete 
ness,  his  part  of  the  contract. 

36 


INDIVIDUALISM 

It  is  this  that  is  now  beginning  to  be  taught 
more  generally  in  the  United  States.  The  schools 
now  devote  some  effort  to  teaching  the  duties  of 
citizenship  to  the  children  who  a  few  years  later 
will  be  called  upon  to  discharge  these  duties ;  the 
universities  have  enlarged  their  study  and  teaching 
of  the  topics  of  government  and  political  and  social 
economics.  The  press  more  and  more  preaches 
sound  sense  on  these  important  questions  and  re 
calls  citizens  to  their  duty  as  citizens.  Which  is  not 
to  say  that  the  work  of  the  schools,  the  universities 
and  the  press  has  borne  or  can  bear  fruit  very 
quickly.  Time  is  needed  to  make  the  system  of 
civic  education,  which  is  of  the  highest  importance 
to  a  democracy,  as  strong  and  as  widespread  as  it 
needs  to  be,  but  the  progress  is  already  considerable, 
and  the  revival  of  a  true  public  spirit,  of  a  genuine 
public  opinion  which  is  not  simply  swayed  by  the 
professional  politician  but  directed  by  sane  think 
ers,  is  at  once  remarkable  and  gratifying. 

Individualism  is  yet  rampant,  and  in  the  next 
chapters  it  will  be  shown  how  greatly  it  yet  affects 
law,  religion  and  other  aspects  of  the  national  life; 
but  it  is  slowly  being  balanced  and  checked  by  the 
recognition  of  the  need  for  an  understanding  and  a 
due  performance  of  the  duties  of  the  citizen. 

Individualism  and  materialism,  carried  to  excess 
in  the  former  case,  have  done  much  to  harm  prog 
ress,  but  if  the  evils  are  plainly  seen  and  felt,  they 
are  no  longer  permitted  to  rule  at  their  pleasure. 
The  country  which  has  experienced  the  results  of 
a  startlingly  rapid  material  development  must  neces- 

37 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

sarily  exhibit  marks  of  the  deleterious  influences  at 
work,  of  the  loss  of  high  ideals  and  the  substitution 
in  their  place  of  aims  infinitely  lower,  but  it  is  also 
true  that  a  profound  change  in  public  opinion  is 
coming  about.  Impatience,  irritation,  are  visible 
and  these  are  healthful  signs  of  the  awakening  of 
the  national  conscience.  To  suppose  that  so  great 
a  people  as  that  of  the  United  States  can  sink  ir 
retrievably  in  the  slough  of  materialism  is  wilfully 
to  shut  one's  eyes  to  facts.  Not  only  is  it  not  sink 
ing  farther ;  it  is  resolutely  bent  on  emerging.  Daily 
the  admiration  for  strong  men  of  high  principle 
grows  and  spreads,  and  that  admiration  is  not  con 
fined  to  hysterical  outbursts  of  cheering  at  banquets 
and  meetings.  It  is  manifested  in  acts  as  well  as  in 
words,  and  the  people  have  made  it  plain  that  they 
do  desire  to  be  informed  and  led  by  men  who 
are  sincere  and  courageous,  truthful  and  public- 
spirited.  There  will  yet  be  undesirable,  improper 
candidates  for  any  and  every  office,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest,  but  more  righteous  men  are  coming 
forward,  more  men  able  and  willing  to  direct  the 
fortunes  of  their  State,  of  their  country  into  the 
right  channels. 

Men,  in  America,  are  perceiving,  yet  dimly  it  may 
be,  but  none  the  less  perceiving  the  intimate  con 
nection  between  the  individual  and  the  nation ;  learn 
ing  to  rely  less  upon  laws  hastily  drafted  and  passed 
to  meet  some  emergency  and  more  upon  develop 
ment  of  character  and  thorough  grounding  in  the 
eternal  principles  of  right  and  justice.  They  are 
learning  to  recognize  that  whatever  makes  the  in- 

38 


INDIVIDUALISM 

div'dual  better  tends  at  the  same  time  to  aid  the 
race  to  which  he  belongs.  It  may  be  but  a  small  in 
fluence  taken  by  itself,  but  in  the  aggregation  of 
such  influences  they  become  a  mighty  force  that  is 
telling  upon  and  uplifting  the  national  life. 

And  it  is  time  that  individualism  should  be  sternly 
checked  in  its  tendency  to  excess  in  every  direction, 
and  confined  within  those  limits  it  ought  never  to 
have  passed.  For  democracy  can  never  produce  all 
the  good  of  which  it  is  capable  and  which  mankind 
has  the  right  to  expect  from  it,  unless  it  proves  bet 
ter  able  to  maintain  the  just  equilibrium  between 
the  contending  influences  within  it.  In  that  equi 
librium,  not  absolutely  stable,  doubtless,  nor  ever 
uninterfered  with — -it  were  hopeless  to  ask  that — 
but  nearly  stable,  rarely  upset,  society  will  find  the 
solution  of  many  of  the  problems  which  distress  it 
at  the  present  day,  and  the  Old  World  will  then 
learn  from  the  New  how  government  of  the  people 
by  the  people  may  be  made  to  bring  peace  and  or 
der  without  interfering  with  the  just  rights  of  the 
individual  or  allowing  these  to  infringe  upon  the 
equally  just  rights  of  society  represented  by  the 
State. 

Precisely  because  the  United  States  offers  to 
every  man  such  remarkable  variety  and  freedom  of 
opportunity,  is  it  inexorably  necessary  that  these 
opportunities  should  not  be  abused,  that  the  power 
of  the  law  should  ever  be  maintained,  that  justice 
should  not  be  thwarted  by  the  influence  of  wealth 
or  of  political  "pull,"  that  the  rivalry  between  labor 
and  capital  should  be  changed  into  a  healthful  co- 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

partnery,  that  the  employer  should  not  look  upon 
the  employed  as  a  subject  for  exploitation  to  the 
verge  of  revolt,  or  the  employed  to  consider  the 
employer  a  being  to  be  hated  and  attacked  at  every 
opportunity.  There  is  too  much  of  this  state  of 
feeling  in  the  country;  too  much  division  where 
union  should  exist ;  too  much,  therefore,  of  damaging 
of  democracy  for  the  effective  working  of  a  principle 
instinct  with  vitality  and  charged  with  good  if 
rightly  applied. 


IV 
MANNERS 

There  is  sordid  dross  mingled  with  the  rich  metal 
of  democracy.  The  practical  results  of  the  appli 
cation  of  democratic  principles  are  not  always  pleas 
ure;  not  seldom  they  are  offensive,  and,  what  is 
worse,  needlessly  offensive. 

All  men  are  not  capable  of  estimating  correctly 
the  rights  and  privileges  they  enjoy  or  of  recogniz 
ing  the  responsibilities  which  right  and  privileges 
entail.  Many  of  them  are  inclined  to  lay  undue 
stress  on  the  former  and  to  refuse  to  assume  the 
latter.  That  is  because  they  are  imperfectly  edu 
cated;  because  their  perception  is  narrow,  their 
range  of  reflection  limited.  They  are  intellectually 
below  par;  undeveloped;  able  to  grasp  a  portion  of 
a  truth  merely,  and  dwelling  upon  that  to  the  ex 
clusion  of  the  greater  part.  This  is  visible  in  many 
ways  in  the  democratic  society  of  the  United  States. 
The  fact  is  forced  most  unpleasantly  upon  the  ob 
server,  even  if  he  be  but  a  casual  traveler  passing 
rapidly  through  the  land.  It  is  one  of  the  chief 
reasons  of  the  intense  dislike  which  Americans  have 
roused  against  their  nationality.  In  this  respect 
they  have  largely  taken  the  place  the  English  for- 

41 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

merly  occupied.  The  cold  indifference  of  the  Eng 
lishman,  his  well-nigh  imperturbable  coolness  and 
self-possession,  his  rigid  adherence  to  his  habits  and 
customs  in  whatever  country  and  in  whatever  clime 
he  found  himself,  his  mode  of  transporting  his  lares 
et  penates  with  him  wherever  he  wandered  or  settled, 
his  confident  conviction  of  his  indisputable  superior 
ity  to  the  rest  of  mankind — the  more  offensive  be 
cause  not  expressed  in  so  many  words  but  plainly 
marked  by  a  certain  aloofness  and  coldness  of  man 
ner — his  resolute  opposition  to  making  himself  ac 
quainted  with  the  language  or  manners  or  prejudices 
of  the  people  whose  lands  he  visited — these  combined 
to  cause  him  to  be  heartily  disliked  and  even  cor 
dially  hated  by  foreigners.  He  represented  in  mod 
ern  Europe  the  intensest  form  of  that  racial  pe 
culiarity  which  caused  the  Jews  of  old  to  be  con 
trary  to  all  men. 

But  since  the  Americans  have  taken  to  invading 
the  continent  of  Europe  in  ever-increasing  numbers, 
and  to  displaying  certain  national  peculiarities  with 
the  fervid  facility  they  possess  in  all  things,  they 
have  rapidly  supplanted  the  Englishman  in  this  re 
gard,  and  have  inherited  the  greater  share  of  the 
dislike  and  detestation  which  the  inhabitants  of 
"perfidious  Albion"  had  won  for  themselves.  The 
latter  will  no  doubt  not  mourn  over  the  change,  but 
for  those  among  them  who  bear  sincere  affection  to 
ward  their  cousins  beyond  the  sea,  the  result  is  re 
grettable.  The  American  has  so  many  good  quali 
ties  that  it  is  a  pity  he  should  make  himself  mis 
understood  and  win  abhorrence  where  he  might  so 

42 


MANNERS 

easily  secure  cordiality.  It  is  one  of  the  conse 
quences  of  his  application  of  the  democratic  prin 
ciple,  and  of  his  adaptation  of  the  weaknesses  of 
human  nature  to  his  own  use  and  profit — but  in  this 
case,  to  his  own  disadvantage. 

Taken  all  round,  the  average  American  is  man 
nerless — a  harsh  saying,  but  a  true  one.  The  ameni 
ties  of  life  suffer  rude  shocks  at  his  hands,  and 
politeness  is  a  rare  and  little  practiced  virtue.  This 
is  acknowledged  and  lamented  by  Americans  them 
selves,  and  is  ascribed  to  various  causes,  one  of 
which,  frequently  cited,  is  that  they  have  not  time  to 
be  civil,  which  is  possibly  the  case,  although  civility 
does  not  really  absorb  so  much  time  that  it  may 
not  be  indulged  in  at  least  as  an  occasional  luxury. 

But  the  real  reason  is  different;  lack  of  time  is 
but  an  explanation  put  forward  in  lieu  of  a  better, 
as  most  Americans  do  not  trouble  to  reason  out  the 
why  and  wherefore  of  their  actions  in  this  respect. 
It  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  working  of  a  mistaken 
view  of  the  principle  of  democracy,  and  in  its  ex 
tension  or  development  into  intense  selfishness,  and 
consequent  indifference  to  others.  It  is  not  true 
that  Americans  have  not  time  for  manners ;  they 
think  they  have  not  time  because  most  of  them  are 
so  intently  occupied  in  pursuing  their  individual 
ends,  yet  there  are  great  numbers  of  remarkably 
well-bred  and  well-mannered  Americans,  who,  none 
the  less,  manage  to  succeed  in  the  struggle  for  life 
and  fortune.  It  is  difficult  to  surpass  a  thoroughly 
well-bred  American  in  charm  of  manner  and  address, 
in  thoughtfulness  for  others,  in  purity  of  language. 

43 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

It  is  not,  therefore,  a  racial  defect  properly  speak 
ing,  but  rather  an  indifference  to  the  requirements 
of  civilization  and  of  rightly  understood  equality. 

The  feeling,  already  dwelt  upon,  entertained  by 
the  average  American,  that  he  is  as  good  as  his 
neighbor,  is  at  the  root  of  the  lack  of  manners.  He 
desires  to  impress  this  upon  everyone  he  comes  in 
contact  with.  Then  he  is  desperately  anxious  to 
maintain  before  the  world  at  large  the  fact  that  he 
is  a  free  man,  in  a  sense  and  to  an  extent  which  is 
and  must  be  unknown  and  unapproachable  in  any 
other  country  on  the  surface  of  the  globe.  Thirdly, 
he  is  individualistic,  which  tends  rapidly  to  mean 
selfish  and  self-centered,  and  consequently  he  is  apt 
to  think  of  himself  first,  and  has  no  leisure  to  think 
of  others.  Fourthly,  as  nearly  everyone  around  him 
acts  in  precisely  the  same  fashion,  he  does  not  see 
why  he  should  change,  and  make  an  oddity  of  him 
self.  Add  to  this,  that  the  democratic  mingling  of 
the  classes  brings  to  the  front  many  an  untutored 
man  or  woman,  naturally  ignorant  of  the  elements 
of  courtesy,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how 
it  comes  that  manners  are  conspicuous  by  their  ab 
sence  in  the  daily  intercourse  of  life. 

Not  so  many  years  ago  it  would  have  been  un 
necessary  to  comment  on  a  similar  deterioration  in 
the  manners  of  men  in  Great  Britain.  To-day  one 
sees  with  regret  that  manners  are  fast  disappearing. 
There  is  still  abundant  civility  met  with  in  the  shops, 
in  public  establishments  of  all  sorts,  but  the  old 
courtesy  toward  the  weaker  sex  has  suffered  seri 
ous  diminution.  There  is  not  the  same  attention  paid 

44 


MANNERS 

to  it,  and  the  young  are  the  worst  offenders  in  this 
respect.  The  schoolboy  will  sit  placidly  in  a 
crowded  car  while  gray-haired  women  stand.  The 
workmen  will  yield  his  seat :  the  middle-class  man  will 
keep  his.  He  is  frank  about  it:  he  does  not  even 
pretend  to  be  reading  the  paper  or  sleeping.  He 
has  shoved  in  ahead  of  the  women  and  his  greater 
physical  strength  is  rewarded  by  comfort.  Some 
there  are  who  maintain  the  old  and  excellent  code  of 
conduct,  but  they  are  becoming  fewer  and  fewer 
every  day.  The  young  generation  scarcely  ever 
dreams  of  exhibiting  courtesy  or  ordinary  civility. 

It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  this  changed  attitude 
on  the  part  of  British  men  is  due  to  the  feminist 
movement,  and  especially  to  the  excesses  and  out 
rages  of  the  militant  section  of  the  suffragettes. 
Unfortunately  for  the  validity  of  this  excuse,  or  ex 
planation,  the  change  in  manners  antedates  the  pub 
lic  disapproval  of  the  militants.  And  it  is  plain  that 
selfishness  and  a  disregard  of  the  amenities  of  life 
is  the  true  motive.  Henceforth  we  can  scarcely  be 
justified  in  reproaching  Americans  with  lack  of  good 
manners.  We  are  ourselves  on  the  downward  path. 

There  is  still  another  reason,  which  should  be 
mentioned:  the  enormous  influx  of  immigrants  of  all 
races  and  chiefly  of  the  lower  and  more  ignorant 
classes.  The  invasion  of  the  Irish,  the  Spaniard,  the 
Slav,  the  Scandinavian,  the  Teuton,  counts  for  much 
in  modifying  conditions  in  this  land.  These  people, 
most  of  them,  come  from  countries  where  liberty  is 
but  a  shadow  and  a  name,  and  find  themselves  sud 
denly  transplanted  into  an  atmosphere  of  freedom 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

such  as  in  their  wildest  imaginings  they  had  no 
conception  of.  Accustomed  in  the  land  they  have 
left  to  subserviency  and  servility,  they  begin  by 
practicing  the  one  and  the  other,  but  that  does  not 
last  long.  They  observe  with  wonder  and  amaze 
ment  that  it  is  only  to  the  rich,  to  the  very  rich  that 
such  respect  is  paid,  while  to  all  others,  well  dressed 
or  poorly  habited,  the  same  treatment  is  accorded, 
and  that  treatment  is  neglect  of  the  forms  of  civil 
ity.  Amazement  is  succeeded  by  emulation,  and  the 
spirit  of  "liberty"  moves  them  to  assert  their  new 
found  freedom  and  equality  by  an  exaggeration  of 
rudeness.  And  as  one  meets  every  sort  and  condi 
tion  of  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  daily  affairs 
of  life,  one  meets  with  these  people  who  help  to  make 
worse  the  already  bad  condition  of  affairs. 

Excellent  as  is  the  democratic  principle  in  its  ap 
plication  to  the  general  relations  between  citizens 
of  the  same  state,  it  is  indescribably  disagreeable 
when  it  takes  the  form  of  a  familiarity  offensive 
in  itself  and  yet  more  offensive  in  the  assumption 
it  entails  that  the  person  addressed  is  on  the  same 
level  of  indifference  to  decent  amenities  as  the  per 
son  who  addresses.  One  can  put  up  with  a  coarse 
or  rude  individual,  but  one  does  object  to  being,  by 
him,  put  into  the  class  to  which  he  belongs.  And 
this  is  exactly  the  effect  produced  by  the  average 
American,  where  mannerless  in  his  intercourse  with 
people  who  know  and  practice  the  rules  of  ordinary 
civility. 

This  familiarity  it  is  which  leads  Tom,  Dick  and 
Harry  to  insist  on  shaking  hands  with  whomsoever 

46 


MANNERS 

they  approach,  to  talk  in  a  tone  of  perfect  intellec 
tual  and  social  equality,  to  air  their  own  opinions 
whether  asked  for  or  not,  to  assume  the  welcome 
which  is  rarely  theirs ;  which  makes  the  Irish  servant 
girl  dress  as  nearly  as  may  be  like  her  employer — 
the  term  "mistress"  being  an  insult — which  causes 
the  negro  porter  to  sprawl  on  the  armchair  you 
have  vacated  for  a  moment. 

This  familiarity  is  in  part  the  consequence  of 
the  misinterpretation  of  the  democratic  principle 
that  the  sovereignty  resides  in  the  people  collec 
tively.  That  is  quite  right ;  what  is  quite  wrong  is 
the  way  in  which  the  fact  is  distorted  in  daily 
democracy,  in  which  the  individual  believes,  quite 
sincerely,  that  he  is  in  his  own  person  a  sovereign, 
instead  of  an  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  sovereign 
•  body. 

Mr.  Owen  Wister,  in  that  charming  study  of  a 
rapidly  passing  phase  of  American  civilization, 
"Lady  Baltimore,"  makes  one  of  his  characters  ex 
press  himself  thus:  "I  observed  that  for  myself  I 
supposed  I  should  rest  content  with  the  thought 
that  in  our  enlightened  Republic  every  American 
was  himself  a  sovereign." 

And  that  the  sarcasm  is  not  uncalled  for  the  epi 
sode  of  the  unionists  in  Chicago  abundantly  proves. 
It  was  at  the  time  of  the  Jameson  Raid,  when  a 
certain  potentate  sent  a  congratulatory  message  to 
President  Kruger.  As  this  message  was  calculated 
to  exasperate  Britons  it  naturally  delighted  the 
average  Anglophobe  in  the  United  States,  and  among 
other  expressions  of  satisfaction  and  joy  was  that 

47 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  a  Chicago  trade-union.  The  members  deter 
mined  to  congratulate  the  European  potentate,  and 
accordingly  sent  him  a  cable  beginning  thus: 

"To  His  Majesty 

"We,  your  fellow-sovereigns,  members  of 

Union,  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  in  the  United  States  of 
America etc.,  etc." 

It  would  surely  have  soothed  any  angry  English 
man  to  watch  the  reception  of  that  message  by  the 
Illustrious  Personage  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

Familiarity  breeds  contempt,  but  these  exemplars 
of  applied  democracy  are  incapable  of  feeling  con 
tempt,  and  it  would  be  wasted  on  them.  Their  mode 
of  address  denotes  that  they  do  not  consider  them 
selves  in  any  respect  the  inferiors  of  the  greatest 
and  most  honored  of  the  land.  Since  they  are  on 
the  same  footing  as  the  most  eminent — and  they 
certainly  are,  in  their  own  estimation — they  are 
also  on  the  same  footing  as  the  ordinary  mortal,  for 
whom,  in  consequence,  they  entertain  no  respect, 
and,  as  a  further  consequence,  to  whom  they  pay  no 
civility. 

It  is  rare  indeed  to  meet  with  even  the  outward 
appearance  of  manners  in  the  stores.  Purchasers 
relate  to  each  other  with  awe  how  in  one  place  they 
have  been  politely  treated.  The  case  is  noteworthy 
and  goes  on  record  at  once.  But  the  ordinary 
"saleslady"  or  salesman  does  not  concern  himself  or 
herself  with  formulae  of  politeness  or  marks  of  at 
tention.  You  are  simply  a  buyer,  that  is,  in  the 
average,  a  nuisance,  to  be  disposed  of  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  But,  it  should  be  said,  the  management, 

48 


MANNERS 

in  many  cases,  is  not  satisfied  with  deploring  this 
condition  of  affairs ;  it  endeavors  to  rectify  it,  bene 
fiting  both  customer  and  seller. 

In  public  offices,  in  public  conveyances,  rare  is  it 
to  meet  with  the  outward  forms  of  civility.  This 
does  not  mean  that  they  are  invariably  wanting,  but 
that  they  are  not  common.  There  are  people  who 
are  naturally  inclined  to  courtesy,  and  they  are  to 
be  found  in  the  United  States  as  elsewhere,  just  as 
in  every  country,  even  in  those  where  politeness  has 
become  a  habit,  there  are  to  be  met  with  rude  and 
surly  individuals.  But  the  difference  is  that  where 
as  in  most  other  countries  civility  is  the  rule,  in 
the  United  States  it  is  the  exception. 

Enter  a  building:  someone  else  is  just  coming 
out.  Naturally  you  expect  he  will  prevent  the  door 
from  slamming  in  your  face,  but  you  are  in  error; 
it  is  just  what  he  does  not  do,  and  if  you  happen 
to  be  going  out  behind  him  the  same  thing  will  hap 
pen.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  hold  the  door  open 
for  man  or  woman,  they  will  pass  out  and  seldom, 
if  ever,  utter  a  word  of  thanks  or  make  a  gesture 
of  acknowledgment.  A  man  will  pass  in  front  of  a 
woman,  a  youth  in  front  of  an  older  person,  and 
neither  will  think  for  a  second  that  they  are  doing 
anything  out  of  the  way.  Politeness,  in  its  most 
elementary  form,  appears  to  be  considered  servility, 
to  which  no  free-born  citizen  can  submit,  or  an  ex 
pression  of  inferiority,  which  can  in  no  wise  be 
tolerated. 

It  is  needless  to  enlarge  on  this  unfortunate  fea 
ture  of  the  habits  and  customs  of  Americans.  Much 

49 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

might  be  written  about  it,  yet  in  the  end  no  good 
purpose  would  be  served.  Mannerless  the  great 
number  of  them  are,  and  mannerless  they  will  re 
main,  until  successive  generations  shall  have  lost 
the  habit  of  manifesting  an  independence  no  one 
contests  by  methods  which  have  nothing  to  com 
mend  them.  The  boasted  chivalry  of  American  men 
toward  women  in  general  may  then  become  visible 
in  the  particular;  at  present  it  is  too  often  con 
cealed.  For  chivalry  consists  not  in  simply  work 
ing  in  offices  at  the  earning  of  money  which  the 
women  may  spend,  but  in  treating  them  with  due 
courtesy  at  all  times,  and  this  is  not  the  case. 
Women  are  occasionally  accorded  ordinary  civility ; 
more  frequently  they  are  made  to  feel  that  they 
have  got  to  take  the  world  as  it  comes.  Of  this 
also  innumerable  instances  might  be  given,  but  one, 
related  by  Lowell,  assuredly  a  credible  witness,  may 
suffice  as  a  reference.  And  similar  cases  have  come 
to  the  notice  of  everyone,  American  or  foreigner, 
who  has  traveled  in  the  cars,  whether  horse,  trolley 
or  steam. 

Again,  applied  democracy  manifests  itself  dis 
agreeably  in  the  revolt  against  discipline  on  the  part 
of  children,  both  boys  and  girls,  but  especially 
boys.  It  is  difficult,  in  many  schools,  to  maintain 
the  standard  of  discipline  required  for  efficient 
teaching,  because  the  spirit  of  independence  is  so 
strongly  developed  in  the  young,  and  at  the  earliest 
age,  that  they  rebel  against  any  application  of  au 
thority.  It  is  the  tactful  and  masterful  teacher 
who  succeeds  best,  of  course;  the  one  who  knows 

50 


MANNERS 

how  to  wear  the  velvet  glove  on  the  hand  of  iron; 
but  even  he  is  bound  to  come  to  grief  at  some  time 
or  other,  when  faced  by  a  determined  individualist 
who  is  aware  of  the  limitless  natural  rights  of  man, 
and  who  is  convinced  that  his  way  is  the  right  one 
and  the  teacher's  the  wrong.  Obedience,  for  its 
own  sake,  and  because  of  its  value  in  developing  the 
power  to  command,  does  not  commend  itself  to  the 
average  American  youth.  And  as  he  develops  at 
the  same  time  the  lack  of  respect  for  position,  as 
such,  the  task  of  the  master  or  mistress  is  greatly 
aggravated.  Resistance  to  authority  not  infre 
quently  takes  the  form  of  revolt,  or  strike.  The 
young  are  quick  to  learn  the  methods  employed  by 
their  elders,  and  a  class  or  a  school  will  imitate  a 
union  and  refuse  to  study  or  even  attend  until  the 
obnoxious  teacher  has  been  removed.  The  charging 
of  teachers,  in  the  courts,  with  assault,  because  they 
have  been  compelled  to  resort  to  corporal  punish 
ment,  is  also  too  frequent  an  occurrence.  The 
teacher  has  to  defend  himself,  and  he  is  not  always 
successful  in  convincing  the  tribunal  that  the  course 
pursued  by  him  was  necessary.  The  triumph  of  the 
rebel  in  court  naturally  complicates  the  already 
great  difficulty  of  managing  the  school. 

The  army,  at  least  the  militia,  finds  the  same  re 
sults  cropping  up  now  and  then.  Neither  the  land 
nor  the  sea  service  is  really  popular;  men  do  not 
flock  to  it  and  inducements  of  various  sorts  have  to 
be  held  out  to  them.  They  bring  into  the  army  or 
the  navy  ideas  utterly  opposed  to  that  blind  and 
prompt  obedience  which  are  essential  to  the  proper 

51 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

carrying  out  of  the  duty  of  a  ship  or  a  regiment. 
They  become  good  soldiers  and  good  sailors  but  it  is 
not  without  trouble.  And  there  is  always  the  chance 
that  they  will  "break  out  in  a  new  spot,"  as  did  the 
private  who  refused  to  attend  divine  service. 

It  is  not  possible  to  conciliate  true  democracy,  and 
especially  democratic  principles  carried  to  their 
logical  conclusion,  with  the  requirements  of  military 
or  naval  service.  The  soldier  and  the  sailor  must 
be  content,  once  they  enlist,  to  abandon  a  portion 
of  their  cherished  rights.  And  it  would  be  a  for 
tunate  thing  for  many  schools  and  smaller  colleges 
were  the  pupils  in  these  institutions  to  conceive  of 
the  period  of  training  and  teaching  as  one  in  which 
it  is  for  their  truest  advantage  to  learn  to  obey. 

But  that  is  the  hardest  and  most  difficult  thing  the 
average  American  can  be  set  to  do.  He  entertains 
an  apparently  invincible  repugnance  to  the  observ 
ance  of  anything  that  savors  of  authority,  hence  his 
disregard  of  law,  and  if  law  be  disregarded,  albeit 
intended  for  the  protection  of  the  community,  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  any  greater  consideration 
will  be  vouchsafed  to  that  unwritten  code  which 
regulates  the  private  intercourse  of  well-bred  per 
sons.  Nor,  so  long  as  in  their  own  country  they 
neglect,  deliberately  neglect,  the  simplest  require 
ments  of  courtesy,  should  surprise  be  felt  at  their 
ignoring  the  habits  and  customs  of  lands  where 
politeness  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  habits  of  the 
people. 

There  is  a  class  of  Americans  apt  to  become  a 
stone  of  offense  to  those  it  comes  in  contact  with 

52 


MANNERS 

in  the  course  of  foreign  travel.  Careless  of  the 
sanctity  of  privacy  in  their  own  surroundings,  they 
are  not  prepared  or  willing  to  allow  the  Englishman 
or  the  Frenchman  to  enjoy  it  in  peace  in  England 
or  in  France.  They  seem  to  consider  that  they  have 
an  indefeasible  and  inborn  right  to  penetrate 
whithersoever  their  fancy  dictates ;  to  ask  the  most 
leading  questions ;  to  interfere  with  recommendation 
or  direction ;  to  intrude  their  opinion,  and  to  support 
it  at  times  offensively.  Unaccustomed  to  having 
their  feelings  consulted,  they  never  dream  of  consult 
ing  the  feelings  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  they 
are  visiting.  At  home  they  drive  their  automobiles 
with  reckless  and  murderous  speed  through  streets 
and  avenues,  amid  crowded  traffic  and  in  narrow 
places,  trusting  to  the  power  of  their  money  to  get 
them  off  in  the  event  of  their  being  arrested  or  sum 
moned  to  -court,  and  they  cannot  understand  why 
they  should  not  do  exactly  the  same  in  one  of  the 
countries  of  effete  Europe.  At  home  they  run  down 
pedestrians  and  go  on  their  way  smelling  to  high 
heaven;  but  they  are  indignant  when,  abroad,  they 
are  arrested  and  fined  or  imprisoned  for  an  act  that 
would  not  always  cause  them  inconvenience  at  home. 
That  type  of  American,  when  traveling  abroad,  is, 
too  frequently,  aggressive,  self-assertive,  convinced 
that  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  do  what  he  pleases, 
how  he  pleases  and  when  he  pleases.  If  he  breaks 
rules  and  regulations,  he  considers  that  these  may 
be  needed  for  the  slaves  of  the  foreign  power,  but 
cannot  possibly  apply  to  a  free-born  citizen  of  the 
greatest  country  on  earth,  and  if  the  authorities  fail 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

to  take  that  view,  he  pesters  his  consul  or  ambas 
sador  with  plaints  and  threats,  until  that  unhappy 
official  would,  one  may  believe,  willingly  consent 
never  again  to  behold  in  the  flesh  a  single  one  of  his 
fellow-countrymen. 

That  type  of  vulgar  American  flaunts  the  wealth 
of  his  nation;  talks  continually  of  the  vast  extent 
of  the  country,  of  its  illimitable  resources,  of  its 
wondrous  progress,  of  the  amazing  energy  and  start 
ling  qualities  of  its  inhabitants.  He  sees  little  or 
nothing  to  admire  in  the  ways  of  the  Old  World,  but 
much  to  criticize  sharply  and  roughly,  although  he 
himself  is  the  most  supersensitive  creature  when 
criticism  is  directed  against  him.  In  a  word,  he 
makes  that  numerous  class  of  his  countrymen  and 
countrywomen,  who  worthily  represent  the  culture 
and  intelligence  and  charm  of  his  race,  blush  with 
mortification  as  they  view  him  making  himself  a 
spectacle  for  gods  and  men ;  slandering  his  land  and 
calling  down  upon  himself  the  hearty,  though  per 
haps  unspoken,  curses  of  all  who,  knowing  the  United 
States  and  their  people,  are  exasperated  at  the  dis 
play  of  all  the  faults  and  the  concealing  of  all  the 
virtues  and  attractive  qualities.  If  he  be  rich,  he 
boasts  and  brags  of  his  wealth ;  squanders  money  to 
prove  the  superiority  of  his  fortune  to  the  wretched 
pittances  of  the  miscalled  millionaires  of  the  Old 
World ;  if  he  be  in  moderate  circumstances,  he  none 
the  less  affects  the  airs  of  the  plutocrat,  and  dis 
dains  the  modesty  and  thrift  of  the  Englishman  or 
the  Frenchman. 

As  for  the  customs  of  the  country  wherein  he 
54 


MANNERS 

disports  himself,  as  for  the  manners  of  its  inhabi 
tants,  these  are  merely  pegs  on  which  to  hang  com 
parisons  entirely  unpleasant  to  the  natives  and  satis 
fying  to  his  national  pride.  The  institutions  of  the 
land,  especially  if  that  land  be  a  monarchy,  afford 
him  a  theme  for  endless  disquisitions  upon  the  per 
fection  of  the  Federal,  State  and  municipal  govern 
ments  in  America,  and  the  utter  rottenness  of  mon 
archies  in  general  and  modern  sovereigns  in  par 
ticular.  Here  is  a  verbatim  report  of  a  conversation 
which  actually  took  place  some  years  ago  and  which 
is  a  fair  example  of  the  sort  of  talk  of  which  the 
traveling  American  of  the  ordinary  class  loves  to 
indulge  in.  The  scene  was  the  dining-room  of  a 
boarding-house,  patronized  largely  by  Americans. 
The  characters,  a  "lady" — from  Philadelphia  (that 
city  of  sweet  homes  and  sweeter  women) — and  an 
Englishman,  long  a  resident  in  the  United  States  and 
well  acquainted  with  the  country. 

A  young  couple,  American  also,  on  their  honey 
moon  trip,  had  been  spending  the  day  in  sight-seeing, 
and  to  their  great  delight  had  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  then  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales.  To  their 
great  delight,  for  mauger  republicanism  and  democ 
racy,  the  average  American  is  as  fond  of  looking 
upon  the  face  of  royalty  or  of  gazing  open-mouthed 
at  a  lord  as  is  our  veriest  Englishman.  They,  were 
expressing  their  gratification  and  their  intense  wish 
to  see  also  the  well-beloved  Queen  Victoria. 

"Huh!"  uttered  in  a  sufficiently  loud  tone  the 
"lady"  from  Philadelphia.  "I  would  not  turn  round 
to  look  at  her." 

55 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

"Why  not?"  exclaimed  the  bride. 

"Kings  and  queens  are  relics  of  barbarous 
tyranny." 

"But,"  ventured  the  Englishman,  "you  do  not 
surely  mean  to  imply  that  our  Queen " 

"I  despise  queens,"  snorted  the  proud  dame;  "I 
belong  to  a  land  where  we  have  no  tyrants." 

"You  interest  me,"  returned  the  Englishman. 
"May  I  ask  a  question  or  two  about  your  coun 
try?" 

"You  may." 

"Your  ruler " 

"We  have  no  ruler." 

"Beg  pardon.  Your  President,  by  whom  is  he 
chosen  ?" 

"By  the  free  and  independent  voters  of  Amer 
ica." 

"Then  what  is  the  'machine'  I  have  heard  spoken 
of  in  connection  with  presidential  nominations?" 

There  was  no  answer,  save  a  sniff  and  a  snort. 

The  Englishman  went  on: 

"Your  cities  are  also  governed  by  the  people,  act 
ing  as  voters,  are  they  not?" 

"They  are,"  was  the  proud  response,  "by  the 
free  and  intelligent  manhood  of  America." 

"And  that  is  what  is  meant  when  your  papers  re 
fer  to  Tammany  in  New  York?" 

A  glare  alone  replied. 

"Your  states  ?  Have  you  not  a  Matthew  S.  Quay 
and  an  Odell  and  a  Hill  as  you  have  a  Croker?" 

"Sir,  I  decline  to  hold  further  conversation  with 
you." 

56 


MANNERS 

And,  as  Corneillc  makes  Rodrigue  say,  le  combat 
cessa  faute  de  combattants. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  convey  to  the  foreigner, 
of  education,  that  is,  a  true  conception  of  the  power 
of  the  democratic  spirit  in  its  action  upon  the  minds 
of  the  masses.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the 
manifestations  referred  to,  and  of  which  an  instance 
has  just  been  given,  are  not  met  with  among  the 
educated  and  refined,  but  none  the  less,  even  among 
them  the  fervor  of  chauvinism,  which  is  an  enormous 
exaggeration  of  patriotism,  is  strikingly  noticeable. 
"My  country,  right  or  wrong,"  is  the  inspiring  mo 
tive  of  the  actions  and  words  of  many  of  them, 
and  an  inability  to  appreciate  differences  of  condi 
tions  in  other  lands  is  frequent.  Imbued  profoundly 
with  the  conviction  that  an  American  citizen  is  not 
merely  equal,  but  infinitely  superior  to  the  citizen  of 
any  other  country,  they  act  on  that  belief,  and  the 
result  is  not  pleasant  to  the  stranger  they  whelm 
with  that  declaration  of  supremacy. 

There  is  this  difference  between  the  Briton — an 
individual  singularly  led  with  a  similar  sense  of  su 
periority  over  all  other  nationalities, — and  the 
American,  that  the  former  is  so  absolutely  sure  of 
his  ground,  of  his  position,  so  convinced  of  the  com 
plete  primacy  of  his  nation,  that  he  does  not  con 
sider  it  worth  while  to  express  it,  or  assert  it.  It  is  a 
thing  which  is  plainer  than  the  nose  on  a  man's  face, 
than  the  light  of  day  or  the  darkness  of  night. 
One  does  not  go  about  affirming  that  light  is  light; 
no  more  does  the  Briton,  therefore,  proclaim  to  all 
and  sundry  that  he  is  the  salt  of  the  earth.  He  is; 

57 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

that  is  self-evident.  But  the  American,  conscious  of 
the  greatness  of  his  country,  of  its  vast  extent,  of 
its  prodigiously  rapid  development,  aware,  very  well 
aware  that  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  offers 
a  phenomenon  undreamed  of  by  writers  upon  govern 
ment  :  an  immense  country  successful  under  a  purely 
democratic  system — the  American  is  impelled  to 
shout  aloud  the  fact,  patent  to  him  if  to  no  one 
else,  that  he,  and  none  else,  is  the  greatest,  most 
marvelous,  most  exalted  product  of  humanity 
throughout  the  ages,  and  that  his  country  is  the 
most  wonderful  land  in  every  respect  that  God's  sun 
has  ever  shone  upon  or  ever  let  light  up.  The 
knowledge  he  enjoys,  the  conviction  with  which  he 
is  possessed  is  not  sufficient  for  him ;  he  must  vocifer 
ate  it  to  all  and  sundry,  he  must  affirm  his  superior 
ity,  else  it  might  perchance  pass  unnoticed.  But  at 
bottom  the  motive  is  the  same :  the  Briton,  silent  and 
reserved,  and  the  American,  pugnacious,  aggressive 
and  clamorous,  are  actuated  by  the  same  faith. 

And  it  is  just  this  artlessness  of  the  American 
character  which,  rightly  understood,  adds  such  a 
charm  to  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants.  After  all 
it  is  wholly  praiseworthy  in  them  to  be  proud  of 
their  land,  of  their  institutions,  of  their  progress, 
of  their  wealth ;  they  err  only  in  exaggerating  that 
pride  and  its  expression,  and  in  doing  so  they  are 
thoroughly  human,  which  makes  them  thoroughly 
kin  to  all  other  nations.  They  are  still  in  the  stage 
of  boastfulness,  justifiable  boastfulness,  and  they 
have  not  yet  fully  perceived  the  glorious  insolence 
of  the  British  method.  They  are  doing  what  other 

58 


MANNERS 

nations  have  done  before  them:  the  British,  the 
French,  to  name  two  only.  The  Germans  are  act 
ing  as  the  Americans  act,  yet  little  is  heard  in  re 
proach  of  their  brag,  since  brag  that  sort  of  thing 
is  called.  "Me  und  Gott"  sums  up  the  attitude  of 
the  whole  German  nation ;  it  called  forth  a  brief  out 
burst  of  ridicule,  and  is  almost  forgotten  now.  But 
more  forgotten  still  is  the  abundant  proof  that  a 
precisely  similar  state  of  national  vanity,  expressing 
itself  in  just  as  extraordinary  manner  as  among  the 
Americans,  has  been  characteristic  of  the  British  and 
the  French  alike. 

Take  the  latter.  Their  great  poet,  Victor  Hugo, 
has  sung  the  glories  of  France  and  the  French  in  a 
dithyrambic  style  unsurpassed  by  the  loftiest  high- 
falutin'  of  the  Americans.  Here  are  some  lines  of 
his,  written  in  1823,  ere  even  he  has  entered  the 
Romanticist  camp  and  given  full  sway  to  his  lyri 
cism: 

O  Fran£ais !  des  combats  la  palrae  vous  decore: 
Quel  aigle  ne  vaincrait,  arme  de  votre  doufre? 
Et  qui  ne  serait  grand,  du  haut  de  vos  pavois? 
L'etoile  de  Brennus  luit  encore  sus  vos  tetes; 
La  victoire  cut  toujours  des  Frai^ais  a  ses  fetes. 
La  paix  du  monde  entier  depend  de  leur  repos. 

In  another  poem  of  the  same  period,  he  exclaims, 
with  that  assurance  so  delightful  in  him  as  it  is  in 
everyone  enthusiastically  patriotic: 

Son  genie,  eclairant  les  trames, 
Luit  comme  la  lampe  aux  sept  flammes, 
Cachee  aux  temples  du  Jourdain; 
59 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Gardien  des  trones  qu'il  releve, 
Son  glaive  est  le  celeste  glaive 
Qui  flamboie  aux  portes  d'Eden! 

Which  is  not  bad,  when  one  comes  to  think  of  it. 
And  while  Hugo  was  at  that  time  a  good  Roman 
Catholic  and  a  thoroughgoing  Royalist,  he  main 
tained  his  attitude  as  the  singer  of  the  glories  of 
France  when  he  became  a  Bonapartist  and  later  a 
Republican. 

Oh!  Paris  est  la  cite  mere! 
Paris  est  le  lieu  solennel 
Ou  le  tourbillon  ephemere 
Tourne  sur  un  centre  eternel! 

Nul  ne  sait,,  question  profonde, 
Ce  que  perdrait  le  bruit  du  monde 
Le  jour  ou  Paris  se  tairait! 

And  the  French  generally,  the  Parisians  abso 
lutely,  believed  it.  Francisque  Sarcey,  in  his  fas 
cinating  account  of  the  siege  of  Paris,  speaking  of 
the  investment  and  its  consequences  to  the  inhabi 
tants,  says : 

"The  absolute  lack  of  news.  Paris,  whither 
tended  all  the  rumors  of  the  world  and  which  re 
turned  them  increased  and  multiplied  as  by  some 
prodigious  echo,  suddenly  found  itself  cut  off  from 
the  rest  of  the  universe.  .  .  .  We  were  much  sur 
prised  and  greatly  disconcerted.  The  result  sought 
and  obtained  by  our  foes  went  beyond  anything  we 
had  foreseen.  Our  self-love  was  the  first  to  suffer. 
We  had  so  often  said  and  repeated,  in  every  possible 

60 


MANNERS 

way,  that  Paris  was  the  great  mainspring  of  human 
thought,  that  if  it  ceased  to  emit  ideas  and  senti 
ments  the  whole  machinery  of  the  universe  would 
come  to  a  standstill  and  that  there  would  occur  a 
prolonged  collapse  of  civilization.  We  were  com 
pelled  to  acknowledge  that,  though  we  did  occupy 
an  important  place  in  the  world,  we  were  not  quite 
so  much  the  very  heart  and  soul  of  it  as  we  had 
fancied,  and  that  though  Paris  was  severed  from 
the  nations,  the  earth  none  the  less  kept  on  revolv 
ing  round  the  sun,  humanity  continued  none  the  less 
to  think  and  act,  to  move  on  with  equal  step  toward 
eternal  progress.  Most  sad  discovery !  Bitter  dis 
illusion  !  At  need  Europe  and  America  could  do 
without  us,  while  we,  on  our  part,  missed  the  whole 
universe." 

And  the  following  could  scarcely  be  surpassed  by 
the  most  excitable  American  orator  on  a  Fourth  of 
July: 

cette  France  feconde 

Qui  fait,  quand  il  lui  plait,  pour  1'exemple  du  monde, 
Tenir  un  siecle  dans  un  jour. 

By  way,  also,  of  testimony  that  self-praise  is  not 
inconsistent  with  depreciation  of  others,  may  be 
quoted  the  same  poet's  lines  on  America: 

gardez-vous,  jeunes  gens, 

Et  de  ce  que  TAmerique  en  vos  coeurs  secoue, 
Peuple  a  peine  essaye,  nation  de  hasard, 
Sans  tige,  sans  passe,  sans  histoire  et  sans  art. 

The  rhythm  is  admirable,  the  rhyme  excellent,  but 
the  knowledge  of  America  and  the  appreciation  of 

61 


AMERICANS    ART)    THE    BRITONS 

the  land  and  its  people  leave  everything  to  be  de 
sired. 

Naturally  the  Briton  is  not  given  to  boastfulness ; 
at  least  not  to  the  sort  of  boastfulness  which  one 
finds  in  Victor  Hugo  and  so  many  other  French 
writers,  and  which  filled  the  proclamations  of  the 
First  Republic  and  the  bulletins  of  Napoleon.  Yet 
it  is  not  difficult  to  find  in,  say,  Shakespeare,  cer 
tain  passages  which,  while  superbly  poetical  and 
stirring,  are  perhaps  not  models  of  reserve  and  bash- 
fulness,  as  for  instance  this  one,  which  sends  the 
blood  of  the  Englishman  coursing  faster  through  his 
veins : 

This  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  sceptr'd  isle, 

This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat  of  Mars, 

This  other  Eden,  demi-paradise ; 

This  fortress  builded  by  nature  for  herself 

Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war; 

This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world, 

This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 

Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall, 

Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 

Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands ; 

This  blessed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England, 

This  nurse,  this  teeming  womb  of  kings, 

Fear'd  by  their  breed  and  famous  by  their  birth, 

Renowned  for  their  deeds  as  far  from  home, 

For  Christian  service  and  chivalry, 

As  is  the  sepulcher  in  stubborn  Jewry 

Of  the  world's  ransom,  blessed  Mary's  son. 

Or  this  estimate  of  the  comparative  worth  and 
valor  of  the  English  and  the  French,  which  the  great 
Nelson  repeated  and  believed  in: 

62 


MANNERS 

I  thought  upon  one  pair  of  English  legs 
Did  march  three  Frenchmen. 

And  coming  down  to  more  modern  times,  is  there 
not  something  exquisitely  naive  in  the  stanza  from 
Eliza  Cook's  "The  Englishman"? 

There's  a  land  that  bears  a  world-known  name, 

Though  it  is  but  a  little  spot; 
I  say  'tis  first  on  the  scroll  of  Fame, 

And  who  shall  say  it  is  not? 
Of  the  deathless  ones  who  shine  and  live 

In  Arms,  in  Arts,  or  Song; 
The  brightest  the  whole  wide  world  can  give, 

.To  that  little  land  belong. 
'Tis  the  star  of  the  earth,  deny  it  who  can, 
The  island  home  of  an  Englishman. 

Even  in  that  strong  and  deep  "Recessional"  of 
Kipling's,  the  note  of  conscious  power  and  unchal 
lengeable  superiority  rings  out  clear  and  loud. 

The  truth  is  that  all  lands  which  have  brought 
forth  nations  of  strength  have  given  birth  at  the 
same  time  to  ebullitions  of  patriotic  fervor,  and  that 
the  sense  of  power  and  success  elicits  dithyrambics. 
In  France  and  in  England  these  have  usually  taken 
the  poetic  form;  in  the  United  States,  where  poesy 
flourishes  but  scantily,  sonorous  prose  is  used  for 
the  same  purpose,  but  the  inspiration,  the  motive  are 
alike  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New:  pride  in  the 
deeds  done,  in  the  obstacles  overcome,  in  the  con 
quests  accomplished.  The  American,  because,  first, 
he  has  not  the  true  military  spirit,  and  secondly,  be 
cause  he  has  the  true  commercial  spirit,  celebrates 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

preferably  the  achievements  of  industry  and  busi 
ness,  while  the  Frenchman  and  the  Briton  dwell  with 
natural  complacency  upon  their  glorious  records  of 
triumphs  at  sea  and  on  land.  But  if  the  American 
had  as  long  a  military  and  naval  tradition  as  the 
Briton  or  the  Gaul,  he  would  sing  exultantly  of  his 
prowess  just  as  men  of  both  these  nations  have  done 
in  the  past  and  are  entirely  likely  to  do  in  the  future. 

The  isolation  of  the  United  States,  its  distance 
from  the  scene  of  the  many  conflicts  which  still  rage 
in  the  Old  World,  combine  to  blind  that  portion  of 
the  people  which  does  not  reflect  and  does  not  ob 
serve,  to  the  importance  of  the  sense  of  proportion 
and  to  the  singular  and  valuable  privileges  enjoyed 
by  the  land.  It  is  one  thing  to  be  divided,  as  the 
Britons  of  old,  by  the  whole  earth  from  the  possible 
enemy;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  be  in  touch  with 
a  nation  that  at  any  moment  may  be  an  open  foe.  It 
is  easy  to  become  enthusiastic  over  a  possible  armed 
conflict,  when  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  quarrel  will 
be  fought  out  hundreds  and  maybe  thousands  of  miles 
away.  And  when  a  country  has  not,  within  recent 
times,  and  since  the  advent  of  the  most  modern 
methods  of  warfare,  fought  a  great  war,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  it  should  believe  itself  invincible.  It 
probably  is  invincible,  and  that  is  sufficient  for  the 
self-glorificator,  who  flourishes  so  richly  in  the 
United  States. 

Then  the  very  growth  of  democracy  encourages 
boastfulness.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
essence  of  democracy  is  the  sharing  in  the  govern 
ment,  in  some  way  or  other,  by  all  the  members  of 

64 


MANNERS 

the  State;  there  is  no  division  between  them  in  this 
respect ;  there  is  no  class  from  which  in  particular  or 
exclusively  the  governing  body  will  be  chosen.  All 
men  have  the  opportunity  of  rising,  and  directing 
affairs  after  they  have  risen.  The  youngster  who 
howls  the  latest  edition  of  a  sensational  sheet  on 
the  streets  may,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  enter 
the  aldermanic  chamber,  rise  to  the  mayoralty,  at 
tain  to  Congress,  be  a  Governor,  or  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidentia.1  nomination.  Or  he  may,  in  another 
field,  become  one  of  the  leading  financiers  of  the 
country,  and  from  his  office  in  Wall  Street  feel  the 
pulse  not  of  the  markets  of  his  country  alone  but 
of  the  world.  Again,  he  may  emerge  from  the  ranks 
and  appear  as  a  captain  of  industry ;  he  may  direct 
thousands  and  thousands  of  workmen,  an  army  of 
employees,  a  host  of  subordinates ;  all  that  is  within 
his  grasp.  He  may  prove  to  be  an  inventor,  and  a 
happy  invention,  well  exploited,  will  bring  him  fame 
and  wealth.  All  careers  are  open  to  him;  all  posi 
tions,  the  most  distinguished,  the  most  attractive. 
The  American  lad  has,  of  all  lads  on  earth,  the 
greatest  chances  of  making  his  mark  if  there  be  in 
him  the  power  of  marking.  And  he  speedily  learns 
this,  and  once  he  has  acquired  the  knowledge,  once 
he  has  been  trained,  as  he  is  early  trained,  to  dwell 
upon  the  greatness  of  his  birthright,  he  develops 
fatally  the  habit  of  talking  about  it,  and  in  that 
strain  of  exaggeration  which  appears  to  come  nat 
urally  to  a  certain  type  of  American  once  he  starts 
speaking  about  his  country  and  the  performances 
of  himself  and  his  fellow-countrymen. 

65 


V 

PATRIOTISM 

There  is  a  day  dreaded  by  thousands,  welcomed 
by  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  United  States:  the 
Glorious  Fourth.  It  is  dedicated  to  the  addition  to 
the  already  innumerable  noises  which  daily  assault 
the  ear,  of  yet  more  noises.  The  total  effort,  in 
variably  successful,  is  graced  with  the  pompous  term 
of  Patriotism.  The  American  is  fervidly  patriotic. 
The  fieriest  chauvwi  in  France,  the  most  energetic 
jingo  in  Britain  is  nothing  in  comparison  with  him. 
His  patriotism  is  exuberant,  aggressive,  oppressive, 
overwhelming.  He  never  hides  its  light  under  a 
bushel;  he  thrusts  the  flaming  torch  in  the  face  of 
his  fellow-countrymen  and  of  the  stranger  within  his 
gates.  The  entire  world  is  required  to  know  two 
things:  that  the  United  States  is  the  greatest  coun 
try  on  God's  earth,  and  that  the  American  is  the 
most  patriotic  of  men.  He  is  certainly  the  noisiest 
patriot  in  the  world,  although  in  the  last  five  years 
he  has  greatly  modified  his  exuberance. 

Here  again  the  simile  holds  good:  the  people  of 
the  United  States  have  still  something  of  the  boyish 
in  them,  else  they  could  not  delight,  as  they  unques 
tionably  do,  in  the  production  of  so  much  terrific 

66 


PATRIOTISM 

noise  as  characterizes  the  celebration  of  the  national 
festival.  It  would  seem  that  by  this  time,  when  the 
Union  is  firmly  established,  when  it  has  weathered 
storms  that  assailed  it  from  without  and  from  with 
in,  when  it  has  definitely  taken  its  place  as  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  world-powers,  the  exuberance 
natural  in  a  very  young  and  comparatively  small  na 
tion  would  be  replaced  by  a  form  of  celebration  more 
in  accordance  with  the  dignity,  strength  and  might 
of  the  Union.  But  if  there  are  few  traditions  in  the 
United  States,  such  as  exist  have  a  firm  hold  upon 
the  popular  mind,  and  the  dreadful  cracker,  the  ear- 
piercing  fish-horn,  the  loaded  and  continually  ex 
ploding  pistol  are  the  emblems,  the  sacred  marks  of 
demonstrative  patriotism. 

There  is,  it  is  true,  an  oration  usually  delivered 
upon  that  great  day,  but  that  is  as  a  rule  a  rhetori 
cal  performance  which  attracts  but  little  attention. 
The  real  celebration  consists  in  the  making  of  the 
utmost  racket  and  in  reveling  in  freedom  from  the 
inconvenient  ordinances  which,  in  ordinary  times, 
seek  to  restrain  the  high  spirits  of  an  excitable 
population.  That  accidents  are  rife,  that  limbs  are 
lost,  lives  sacrificed,  men,  women  and  children 
wounded  and  maimed,  does  not  appear  to  strike  the 
multitude  as  a  regrettable  feature,  but  rather  as  an 
additional  joy.  That  the  mode  of  celebration  is, 
when  looked  at  dispassionately,  barbaric  rather  than 
appropriate,  does  not  seem  to  enter  into  many  minds. 
It  is  the  tradition  to  make  a  noise,  much  noise,  to 
drive  a  large  part  of  the  population  of  the  cities  into 
such  wildernesses  as  are  accessible,  to  reduce  another 

67 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

part  to  nervous  prostration,  and  to  acclaim  the 
whole  business  as  patriotism. 

In  this  respect  the  Americans  are  not  much  worse 
than  some  of  the  Europeans  are  and  more  were  not 
so  long  ago.  Man  is  naturally  a  creature  fond  of 
noise :  it  is  only  the  development  of  civilization,  of 
refinement,  which  leads  numbers  of  individuals  to 
prefer  quiet  and  peace  to  discord  and  clamor.  Man 
in  the  state  of  boyhood  finds  peculiar  joy  in  the 
production  of  the  most  horrible  noises,  and  even 
when  he  emerges  from  that  state  into  the  next,  he 
yet  retains  the  fondness  in  an  altered  form.  The 
firing  of  salutes,  which  thrills  the  old  as  it  does  the 
young,  the  ringing  of  church  bells,  the  clangor  of 
the  brass  band  are  but  modified  manifestations  of 
that  eager  delight  in  din  which  is  the  special  appan 
age  of  the  witless  young  and  of  the  Americans  on  the 
Fourth  of  July.  If  only  one  remembers  this,  and 
takes  care  to  escape  to  some  lonely  spot  where  the 
small  boy  is  not,  and  the  grown  fool  ceases  from 
troubling,  the  Fourth  of  July  in  the  United  States 
can  be  spent  in  holy  calm  and  pure  meditation.  But 
it  is  not  well  for  the  average  man  to  remain  within 
sound  of  the  cities  on  that  day. 

The  meaning  given  to  the  word,  the  much  abused 
word  "patriotism,"  is  rarely  its  real  significance. 
The  Americans  have  a  great  deal  of  real  patriotism 
and  along  with  it  they  have  a  great  deal  of  the 
spurious  article — spurious,  or  preferably  inexact. 
They,  and  they  are  far  from  being  alone  in  this, 
misapply  the  term,  and  call  that  patriotic  which  is 
merely  exuberance  or  at  times  boastfulness  or  else 

68 


PATRIOTISM 

hysteria.  There  is  nothing  patriotic  in  setting  off 
fireworks  from  four  in  the  morning  until  midnight, 
in  blowing  on  fish-horns,  in  sending  up  toy  balloons, 
even  in  listening  to  an  oration  in  which  the  speaker 
launches  out  into  fulsome  praise  of  the  "peepul" 
and  their  high  deeds.  To  call  this  patriotism  is  to 
indicate  that  the  real  sense  of  the  word  has  not 
been  grasped.  Patriotism  is  quite  another  thing, 
and  it  does  not  manifest  itself  noisily,  any  more  than 
heroism. 

But  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  Americans  that  they 
extend  the  meaning  of  words  until  these  lose  their 
original  meaning.  Heroes  abound  in  the  country ;  it 
is  becoming  a  distinction  not  to  be  a  hero,  just  as  in 
France,  some  y£ars  ago,  it  was  a  distinction  not  to 
be  adorned  with  the  red  ribbon  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  Patriots  are  thick  as  blackberries,  and  the 
men  and  the  women  who,  under  normal  conditions, 
would  deserve  the  title  are  lost  in  the  crowd,  in  the 
multitude  of  "patriots"  who  have  won  the  cheap 
title.  It  is  with  them  as  with  the  French,  with  whom 
they  have  so  many  points  of  resemblance :  words 
possess  an  elasticity  of  meaning  which  is  surprising, 
and  appellations  of  honor  are  not  for  the  select 
few  but  for  everyone.  It  is  one  of  the  "Rights  of 
Man"  to  be  a  hero,  if  heroes  there  be;  a  patriot,  if 
patriots  are  to  gain  recognition.  Why  not  the 
first  comer  as  well  as  his  neighbor?  Such  is  the 
reasoning,  unconscious,  it  is  true,  of  the  ordinary 
individual,  who  would,  none  the  less,  insist  that  it  is 
not  his  reasoning.  Everyone  has  the  same  right  to 
everything  as  everyone  else,  and  if  heroism  and 

69 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

patriotism  are  being  eulogized,  everyone  claims  to 
be  praised. 

The  fact  is  that  the  word  patriotism — so  noble 
and  so  much  abused — means,  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases,  the  right  to  do  whatever  one  pleases,  under 
color  of  celebrating.  The  terrifying  of  horses  and 
dogs,  the  torturing  of  sick  and  whole,  the  destruc 
tion  of  property,  the  wanton  disregard  of  life,  all 
this  is  described  as  patriotism,  while  in  reality  it  is 
nothing  more  than  the  gratifying  of  certain  tenden 
cies  of  the  human  race.  Yet  no  one  would  be  more 
surprised  to  have  the  true  view  of  this  so-called 
"patriotism"  placed  before  them  than  the  leaders  in 
celebrations:  the  mayors  of  cities,  for  instance,  and 
their  boards  of  aldermen  and  their  common  councils. 
They  would  express,  less  grimly,  of  course,  their  in 
dignation  and  amazement  as  did  that  septembriseur 
who,  being  reproached  with  the  massacre  of  some 
women,  replied :  "But  I  am  a  patriot !" 

It  does  not  enter  into  the  heads  of  the  masses  that 
patriotism  means  love  of  the  fatherland,  and  a  love 
which  manifests  itself  by  self-sacrifice  and  not  at  all 
by  self-gratification.  That  it  is  not  in  the  United 
States  only  that  the  meaning  of  the  word  is  mis 
apprehended  does  not  help  matters  in  the  least :  in  a 
democracy  it  is  important,  it  is  essential,  that  the 
meaning  of  words  and  things  should  be  clearly  and 
thoroughly  understood.  A  man  is  not  in  the  least 
degree  patriotic  because  he  attends  a  banquet,  eats 
a  good  dinner  and  shouts  himself  hoarse  when  the 
toast  of  his  country  is  proposed.  That  is  no  more 
than  a  proof  that  he  is  enjoying  himself  and  feeling 

70 


PATRIOTISM 

enthusiastic.  He  does  nothing  for  his  country  by 
drinking  a  bumper  of  champagne  and  roaring  his 
country's  national  anthem.  His  nation  and  his  na 
tion's  ideals  are  not  in  the  smallest  degree  helped  on 
by  his  burning  quantities  of  fireworks  upon  a  certain 
day  in  the  year :  he  produces  a  pretty  or  a  disturbing 
effect,  but  he  is  not  therefore  patriotic,  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  were  he  invited  to  contribute  to 
a  fund  for  the  relief  of  men  who  have  fallen  by  the 
way  in  the  service  of  the  State,  and  make  no  fuss 
about  it,  that  he  would  refuse.  He  would  none  the 
less  be  a  patriot  in  his  opinion :  he  celebrates ;  he 
cheers  at  the  right  time;  he  hangs  a  banner  on  his 
outward  wall:  these,  to  him,  are  the  tokens  and 
testimonies  of  patriotism. 

But  then  it  would  be  desirable  to  invent  a  new 
word  to  describe  the  real  thing,  and  as  that  word 
would  itself  soon  be  misapplied,  it  is  best  to  teach 
the  multitudes  what  true  patriotism  is  and  the  press 
the  advantage  of  not  bestowing  the  title  of  patriot 
and  hero  promiscuously.  A  man  may  love  his  coun 
try,  and  at  the  same  time  be  quite  unprepared  to 
sacrifice  himself  for  it.  There  are  thousands  like 
that  in  every  land.  They  are  not  braggarts,  they 
are  not  boasters,  they  are  not  hypocrites ;  they  are 
ordinary  men,  decent,  honorable,  sincere;  but  they 
are  not  of  genuine  patriotic  metal.  They  are  not 
of  the  sort  that  walks  quietly  to  the  work  to  be  done, 
at  their  own  expense — either  of  money  or  life  or 
anything  else  that  is  valued.  They  find  many  rea 
sons  for  not  subscribing  to  funds,  or  subscribing  in 
finitely  less  than  they  can  well  afford  to  do.  They 

71 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

want  to  manifest  their  national  enthusiasm  and  love 
of  country  only  when  it  is  not  costly  to  do  so. 
Sacrifice  they  neither  desire  nor  understand.  And 
therefore  they  neither  understand  nor  will  ever  un 
derstand  true  patriotism.  They  will  read  the  life 
of  George  Washington  and  miss — no  matter  how 
often  they  peruse  the  story — the  significance  of 
that  high  patriotism  which  he  exhibited.  They  will 
read  the  life  of  Lincoln,  and  never  suspect  what  it 
was  that  made  him  a  great  patriot.  They  will  read 
of  Paul  Jones  and  never  perceive  that  it  was  not 
his  fighting  the  Serapis  and  taking  her  that  made 
him  a  patriot,  but  something  else  which  it  is  needless 
to  speak  of  since  it  is  bound  to  remain  concealed 
from  them,  even  if  explained.  Just  as  there  are  num 
berless  beings  on  this  earth  who  never  did  and  never 
will  understand  poetry,  music  or  art  in  any  form,  so 
there  are  thousands  upon  thousands  who  never  will 
understand  that  the  root  and  principle  of  patriotism 
is  personal  sacrifice,  and  not  at  all  the  mere  doing  of 
brave  deeds.  These  are  fine  things,  but  they  do  not 
of  themselves  constitute  a  patriot. 

It  would  be  a  very  interesting  question  to  study: 
the  effect  of  democracy,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
autocracy  on  the  other,  upon  the  fostering  of  the 
virtue  of  patriotism.  When  the  devotion  to  Mikado 
and  country  exhibited  by  the  Japanese  is  remem 
bered,  the  inclination  to  ascribe  superior  power  to 
autocracy  is  strong.  But  when  one  studies  Amer 
ican  life  closely,  it  does  seem  that  the  democratic 
spirit  is,  after  all,  the  more  inspired  and  the  more 
fruitful.  There  is,  in  the  United  States,  a  great  deal 

72 


PATRIOTISM 

of  the  most  genuine  and  the  most  beautiful  patriot 
ism;  precisely  of  that  kind  which  the  noisy  devotee 
of  celebration  does  not  and  cannot  apprehend.  He 
is  the  sort  of  man  who  shouts  truculently:  "My 
country  right  or  wrong,"  and  remains  convinced 
that  he  is  thereby  proving  the  superiority  of  that 
country  to  all  others.  The  real  patriots  repeat  the 
cry,  but  with  an  important  modification:  "My 
country  when  right;  and  when  wrong,  to  set  her 
right."  And  to  this  purpose  they  bend  their  ef 
forts,  not  spasmodically,  but  steadily,  regularly,  un 
tiringly.  They  are  the  men  and  women  who  hesitate 
not  to  criticize  and  to  condemn,  in  no  carping  spirit, 
but  with  the  desire  to  improve.  They  are  made  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  frequent  ridicule;  to  suffer  odium 
as  un-American;  to  stand  gibes  and  jeers  from  those 
whose  ideas  of  patriotism  are  of  the  Chinese-cracker 
variety  and  jingo  sort,  but  they  maintain  through 
good  report  and  evil  report  their  stand  for  truth, 
purity,  honesty  in  the  administration  of  the  home 
and  foreign  affairs  of  the  Great  Republic.  They 
are  real  patriots,  because  they  sacrifice  many  a 
chance  to  win  popularity  at  the  expense  of  their  con 
victions,  many  an  opportunity  to  make  or  conserve 
money;  because  they  are  content  to  lose  friends, 
even,  if  the  loss  to  themselves  is  compensated  by  gain 
to  the  Union.  They  have  the  interests  of  their 
country  at  heart,  and  they  place  these  interests  far 
and  away  above  their  own  private  desires.  They 
make  no  great  stir,  excite  no  popular  applause,  win 
no  plaudits  from  the  press,  but  their  work  tells  and 
their  labor  is  beneficial.  They  are  those  who  pre- 
73 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

serve  the  monuments  of  the  past  and  strive  energeti 
cally  against  the  overwhelming  commercialism  which 
would  sweep  away  the  very  vestiges  of  the  history 
of  the  land  for  the  sake  of  a  benefit  to  the  more 
practical  side  of  daily  life. 

For  commercialism,  the  love  of  money,  so  wide 
spread  in  the  United  States,  is  in  rooted  antagonism 
to  patriotism.  Commercialism  understands  sacrifice 
at  the  expense  of  others  only  and  for  its  own  benefit. 
It  cares  nothing  for  the  teaching  of  history,  for 
the  memorials  of  bygone  days,  for  the  tale  of  hero 
ism  in  past  generations.  All  it  sees,  all  it  cares  for 
is  present  advantage.  It  will  destroy  a  time-hon 
ored  relic,  absolutely  priceless  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  lover  of  his  country,  because  it  stands 
in  the  way  of  an  improvement:  improvement  being 
the  satisfying  of  temporary  convenience.  It  is  the 
unswerving  foe  and  the  ever  present  enemy  of  the 
idea,  and  patriotism  is  idealism.  It  is  practical,  and 
there  is  nothing  practical  in  the  sacrifice  of  self  for 
the  sake  of  others,  for  the  sake  of  one's  fatherland, 
one's  city.  It  is  on  the  watch  and  active,  and  it 
commends  itself  to  the  majority  of  the  public. 

It  is  difficult  to  make  the  major  portion  of  the 
public  understand  that  the  historical  monuments  of 
any  country  do  not  belong  exclusively  to  that  coun 
try,  but  are  a  part  of  the  heritage  of  the  world  at 
large,  of  humanity.  For  in  so  far  as  the  history  of  a 
land  is  the  record  of  the  struggle  for  light,  justice 
and  freedom,  in  so  far  is  it  the  common  heritage  of 
all  nations  which  have  struggled  or  will,  in  the  fu 
ture,  struggle  for  these  ideals.  There  speedily  comes 

74 


I 
PATRIOTISM 

a  time  when  the  historical  monuments  of  a  land  cease 
to  be  purely  national  and  become  universal;  when 
they  no  longer  recall  bitterness  and  strife  and  hos 
tility  and  anger,  but  the  great  motives  which  ac 
tuated,  albeit  unconsciously,  the  opponents  who 
fought  each  other.  It  is  not  quite  a  hundred  years 
since  Waterloo  was  fought,  it  is  only  a  little  over  a 
hundred  years  since  Nelson  fell  on  the  Victory's  deck 
at  Trafalgar,  shattering  the  plans  of  Napoleon  and 
preparing  the  final  disaster  on  the  plateau  of  Mont 
Saint-Jean ;  yet  neither  Frenchman  nor  Englishman 
now  looks  back  upon  those  two  tremendous  con 
flicts  as,  on  the  one  hand,  defeats  to  be  remembered 
with  hatred  of  the  victor,  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  victories  to  be  recalled  with  contempt  for  and 
detestation  of  the  vanquished.  Both  nations  remem 
ber  them  rather  as  events  in  which  the  destinies  of 
the  world  were  changed,  and  in  which  they  themselves 
were  as  pawns  in  the  hands  of  a  Higher  Power.  The 
battles  in  the  Crimea  have  not  prevented  Frenchmen 
and  Russians  from  being  friends  and  allies,  and  while 
these  fights  brought  out  the  bravery  of  the  former 
and  the  steadfastness  of  the  latter,  it  is  this  memory, 
and  not  that  of  triumph  or  defeat,  which  survives  at 
the  present  time. 

In  other  words,  the  conception  of  historical 
records  and  of  patriotism  differs  in  Europe  and  in 
the  United  States,  where  it  is  still  too  commonly 
the  habit  to  use  the  memorials  of  long-past  conflicts 
as  a  spur  and  a  stimulus  to  international  hatred.  It 
is  hopeless  to  expect  the  British,  for  instance,  to 
maintain  toward  their  kin  in  the  United  States  an 

75 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

attitude  of  aloofness  and  dislike  simply  because 
George  Washington,  seconded  by  the  people  of  the 
Thirteen  Colonies,  succeeded  in  separating  those 
colonies  from  the  Mother  Country.  But  it  is  not 
difficult  to  maintain  traditional  abhorrence  of  Great 
Britain  and  her  people  among  the  dwellers  in  the 
United  States,  by  continually  presenting  them  as  the 
inveterate  foes  of  the  nation  and  its  liberties.  There 
never  was  anything  very  inveterate  in  the  feelings 
of  the  British  toward  the  Americans  and  the  vic 
tories  of  the  latter  have  left  no  soreness  in  English 
memories.  Yet  it  is  a  fact  that  part  of  the  patriotic 
idea,  as  manifested  on  nearly  all  occasions,  consists, 
in  the  United  States,  in  considering  Britain  as  still 
the  foe  of  the  Union,  and  in  taking  it  for  granted 
that  the  sentiments  of  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  are  the  sentiments  of  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth.  Nothing  more  erroneous  can  well  be  imag 
ined,  and  nothing  is  more  absurd  than  to  suppose 
that  the  monuments  which  commemorate  the  great 
struggle  for  freedom  are  disagreeable  to  the  English 
man.  Far  from  this,  they  possess  a  profound  in 
terest  for  him,  and  the  fear  of  seeing  them  interfered 
with  by  the  action  of  commercialism  is  as  strong — 
possibly  stronger — as  in  the  breast  of  the  most  en 
thusiastic  American.  He  understands  that  these 
memories  and  the  buildings  and  monuments  which 
contain  them  are  as  sacred  to  him  as  to  the  people  in 
whose  land  they  exist;  that  the  scenes  of  the  con 
flicts  which  ended  in  separation  of  the  Motherland 
and  the  Colonies  are  as  fraught  with  interest  to  him 
as  to  the  most  thorough  descendant  of  the  embattled 

76 


PATRIOTISM 

farmers.  These  things  cease  to  be  local  and  national 
and  become  universal.  The  struggle  which  ended  in 
the  establishment  of  the  United  States  is  one  of  the 
great  events  of  world-history,  and  all  that  is  con 
nected  with  it  is  consequently  of  world  interest. 

The  Americans,  however,  are  exhibiting  in  recent 
years  a  truer  and  higher  perception  of  the  impor 
tance  of  real  patriotic  teaching  than  is  to  be  found 
in  England,  for  instance.  Scarcely  is  there  a  school 
room  where  the  portrait  of  Washington  is  not  to  be 
seen.  This  trait  is  fine.  It  is  right  that  the  mem 
ory  of  such  a  man,  so  wise,  so  prudent,  so  steadfast, 
so  forgetful  of  self  and  so  entirely  devoted  to  his 
country's  cause  should  be  continually  kept  before 
the  young.  His  example  is  inspiring;  his  life  is 
fruitful  of  good.  And  when  one  reflects  that  what  he 
strove  for  and  accomplished  was  to  benefit  not  his 
own  beloved  land  alone  but  the  wide  world,  the 
wisdom  of  the  practice  becomes  yet  more  apparent. 
The  plan  of  hoisting  the  national  colors  over  every 
school,  although  not  yet  universal,  is  another  e±cel- 
lent  method  of  cultivating  the  patriotic  sense  in  the 
young.  The  ceremonies  which,  in  many  cases,  at 
tend  the  hoisting  of  the  colors,  and  which  recall  the 
beautiful  order  on  board  men-of-war  at  morn  and 
eve,  are  such  as  to  impress  the  youthful  mind  with 
the  deep  meaning  of  the  flag,  symbol  of  the  nation 
in  the  United  States  as  it  is  throughout  the  British 
Empire.  Canada,  progressive,  alert,  has  also 
adopted  a  similar  practice,  but  in  Old  England  it 
self  it  is  the  rare  exception  and  not  the  rule.  And 
this,  spite  of  the  fact  that  to  every  Briton  the  world 

77 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

over  it  is  the  Union  Jack  which  is  to  him  the  emblem 
and  visible  representation  of  the  country  of  which  he 
is  a  citizen,  and  not,  as  Americans,  even  highly  in 
telligent  Americans  are  apt  to  believe  and  say,  the 
Sovereign.  It  is  not  attachment  to  an  hereditary 
house  which  is  the  bond  that  holds  together  the  Em 
pire;  that  is  an  aid,  but  not  an  indispensable  one. 
The  real  tie  is  the  flag,  that  embodiment  of  mem 
ories,  glorious  and  immortal  memories,  which 
are  the  common  heritage  of  all  Britons.  And 
it  is  the  peculiar  cult  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
which  is  to  be  admired  in  America;  the  reverence, 
which  it  is  sought,  and  on  the  whole  very  success 
fully,  to  inspire  in  the  breast  of  every  resident  in  the 
land,  for  the  national  colors.  It  is  this  which  may 
be  copied  with  advantage  by  the  Briton  in  his  home 
land,  and  the  sooner  the  better. 

Most  praiseworthy  also  are  the  continuous  efforts 
of  the  many  historical  societies  which  devote  them 
selves  to  the  preservation  of  the  monuments  that 
recall  the  past  of  the  Republic.  The  spirit  of  these 
societies  is  daily  becoming  broader  and  more  toler 
ant.  No  longer  is  it  with  them  a  prerequisite  that 
everything  shall  be  made  to  tell  against  the  country 
from  which  sprang  the  United  States.  They  seek 
rather  to  bring  to  the  light  the  truths  of  that  strug 
gle,  truths  obscured,  as  they  inevitably  are,  by  the 
fierce  passions  of  the  moment.  And  so  with  the 
tremendous  Civil  War,  which  desolated  the  land  for 
years  and  left  behind  it  so  heavy  a  cloud  of  sadness 
and  bitterness,  now  happily  waning  and  vanishing, 
as  the  younger  generation,  untouched  by  the  feelings 

78 


PATRIOTISM 

of  that  day,  see  on  either  side  devotion  and  sacrifice 
and  nobility  of  character  and  generosity  and  cour 
age,  and  perceive  that  the  brotherhood  of  the  race 
has  been  strengthened  rather  than  weakened  by  the 
bloody  contest,  and  that  the  principle  fought  for  was 
indeed  worth  all  that  was  given  for  it.  It  is  in  all 
these  things  that  the  conception  of  patriotism  mani 
fests  itself  and  that  the  democracy  shows  itself  able 
to  develop  the  right  understanding  of  it. 


VI 
NATURALIZATION 

It  is  not  intended  to  discuss  here  the  arguments 
for  and  against  change  of  allegiance.  The  fact  it 
self,  that  men  find  it  desirable,  convenient  or  neces 
sary  to  adopt  a  nationality  different  from  that  to 
which  they  were  born,  is  indisputable. 

The  question  is  one  which,  in  the  United  States, 
has  taken  its  place  among  regular  subjects  of  conver 
sation.  In  Great  Britain  and  in  the  Britains  beyond 
the  Seas,  naturalization  is  not  a  topic  of  absorbing 
interest.  Foreigners  change  their  nationality  and  be 
come  British  subjects  without  exciting  the  least  com 
ment.  Nobody  troubles  to  ask  them  the  reasons  for 
the  step  they  take ;  nobody  has  troubled  to  urge 
them  to  take  it. 

There  is  for  this  a  subtle  reason,  a  cause  which  acts 
in  other  ways  also  with  us  British:  the  feeling  that 
the  grant  of  naturalization  is  a  very  high  privilege, 
which  it  is.  And  being  a  privilege,  a  favor,  it  is  to 
be  sought,  not  proffered,  and  still  less  pressed  upon 
the  stranger  within  our  gates.  While  it  is  true  that 
American  citizenship  is  prized,  that  the  possession 
of  it  carries  with  it  many  advantages — a  point 
speedily  perceived  by  Turks  and  other  infidels  who 

80 


NATURALIZATION 

have  made  trouble  for  the  American  Government — 
none  the  less  it  has  not  yet  attained  to  the  imposing 
dignity  now,  and  for  so  long,  attached  to  the  "I  am 
a  British  citizen."  It  will  do  so,  undoubtedly;  it  is 
every  day  approaching  that  level,  but  it  has  not  yet 
attained  it  and  cannot  quite  reach  it  while  the  ac 
quisition  of  it  is  made  so  easy,  the  desire  to  obtain 
it  so  sedulously  cultivated  and  what  ought  to  be  a 
rare  and  coveted  privilege  is  made  a  matter  of  no 
particular  worth,  and,  not  infrequently,  an  obliga 
tion  and  a  burden. 

"I  have  been  naturalized  in  this  country,"  a  rich 
Canadian  said  not  long  since.  "That  was  because  I 
found  that  if  I  would  succeed  in  affairs  I  must  be 
come  so,  but  once  I  have  made  my  pile  and  return 
home,  I  shall  throw  off  my  Americanism  like  an  old 
glove." 

There  are  very  many  Britons  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  and  very  many  who  have  adopted 
their  new  nationality  in  all  sincerity,  but  there  are 
likewise  very  many  on  whom  it  sits  but  indifferently 
well,  for  it  is  the  consequence,  not  of  a  hearty  desire 
to  be  Americans,  but  of  the  supposed  impossibility 
of  succeeding  in  their  business  or  their  profession 
unless  they  change  their  allegiance.  And  a  proof  of 
the  hollowness,  if  one  may  use  so  harsh  a  term,  of 
their  change  of  heart,  is  that  it  is  among  these  forci 
bly  naturalized  Britons  that  are  to  be  found  the  most 
timid,  the  ones  who  most  dread  offending  the  extraor 
dinarily  acute  sensibilities  of  the  rampant  Amer 
ican.  Aware  that  they  are  not  to  the  manner  born, 
they,  like  most  perverts — the  word  being  used  in  its 

81 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

strictly  etymological  sense,  out  of  deference  to  the 
aforesaid  rampant  American — exaggerate  the  need 
of  being  intensely  patriotic,  as  patriotism  is  under 
stood  in  this  land,  that  is,  intensely  intolerant  and, 
not  infrequently,  offensive. 

With  regard  to  no  other  nationality  is  the  urging 
to  renounce  allegiance  to  the  Motherland  so  persist 
ent  and  so  frequent  as  it  is  with  Britons.  The  Mayor 
of  one  of  the  great  cities  regularly  attended,  during 
his  term  of  office,  the  banquets  and  annual  reunions 
of  the  various  British  societies  in  his  bailiwick,  and 
the  unchanging  theme  of  his  remarks  was  the  im 
portance,  as  he  viewed  it,  of  every  Briton  who  had 
not  yet  forsaken  his  allegiance  to  the  British  Sover 
eign  to  do  so  at  once  and  without  any  loss  of  time 
whatever.  Nor  was  this  entreaty  the  result  of  hos 
tility  to  Great  Britain.  The  particular  Mayor  in 
question,  an  upright  and  honorable  merchant,  was 
no  fanatical  hater  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  to 
which,  indeed,  he  himself  belonged.  He  merely  shared 
the  prevailing  belief,  the  deep-seated  conviction  that 
there  is  no  higher  honor  on  God's  earth  than  that  of 
being  an  American,  and  this  while  he  failed  to  per 
ceive  that  his  very  urging,  his  very  intensity  of 
eagerness  that  his  hearers  should  all  pass  over  to  his 
side,  contributed  largely  to  prevent  the  effect  he  was 
striving  for.  The  American  clubman — and  the 
American  club-woman  also — understands  human  na 
ture  admirably,  and  takes  care  to  have  a  long  wait 
ing  list  to  stir  up  the  envy  of  the  candidates  for 
admission.  But  that  same  clubman  will  unhesitat 
ingly  beg  a  foreigner,  a  Briton  especially,  to  become 

82 


NATURALIZATION 

naturalized,  while  he  would  never  dream  of  adopting 
the  same  line  of  conduct  in  respect  to  the  member 
ship  of  his  club.  In  the  one  case  he  understands  and 
acts  upon  the  value  of  a  privilege;  in  the  other,  he 
destroys  the  efficacy  of  that  bait. 

The  power  of  assimilation  is  astonishingly  marked 
in  the  United  States ;  the  second  generation  of  im 
migrants,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  parents  who 
landed  in  New  York,  or  Boston,  is  fervently  Amer 
ican.  The  parents  themselves,  while  often  retaining 
a  fondness  for  the  land  of  their  birth,  a  fondness 
due  to  pure  sentimentality  in  most  cases,  are  almost 
invariably  enthusiastic  citizens  of  their  new  coun 
try.  The  German,  the  Dutch,  the  Frisian,  the 
Dane,  the  Swede,  the  Norwegian,  the  Pole,  the  Lith 
uanian,  the  Russian,  the  Jew,  from  whatever  part 
of  the  universe  he  has  come,  the  Slav,  the  Italian, 
the  Spaniard,  one  and  all  turn  American  in  ideals, 
instincts,  manners  and  modes  of  thought,  though 
necessarily  retaining  some  of.  the  traits  of  their  own 
land.  But  they  are  Americans :  they  may  celebrate 
some  festival,  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  their 
former  ruler,  the  day  held  in  honor  in  their  far-off 
home  place,  but  the  Fourth  of  July  is  to  them  the 
greatest  day  in  the  whole  calendar,  and,  if  they 
happen  to  reside  in  New  England,  they  add  to  it 
Patriots'  Day  and  sing  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  men 
of  Lexington  and  Concord. 

The  Britons  do  not.  Those  of  them  who  have  re 
nounced  all  fealty  to  their  Sovereign  and  who  are 
most  resolute  in  fulfilling  all  that  the  spirit  and 
the  letter  of  the  law  demand  of  them,  do  not, 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

for  all  that,  become  so  thoroughly  American  as 
the  immigrants  from  other  lands.  They  fly  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  on  national  holidays ;  they  set 
off  the  universal  fire-cracker,  in  deference  to  that 
Law  of  Noise  which  rules  in  the  country;  they 
watch  and  cheer  the  march  of  the  procession, 
the  tramp  of  the  soldiery,  but  they  are  not,  do 
what  they  will,  quite  the  Simon  Pure  article. 
There  is  something  of  the  old  leaven  left  in  them; 
the  assimilation  of  the  Briton  is  less  complete,  less 
thorough. 

Nor  is  the  reason  for  this  condition  of  things  far 
to  seek.  The  Briton  has  nothing  to  gain,  save  ma 
terially,  from  changing  his  allegiance.  Materially, 
of  course,  he  may  and  he  does  benefit.  If  he  have 
political  ability  and  some  ambition,  he  may  attain 
more  readily  to  influence  and  power  in  this  land  than 
in  the  old  country.  He  can  rise  to  any  position  in 
the  political  world  save  that  of  President.  He  does 
not  need,  as  an  indispensable  preliminary,  family  in 
fluence  or  great  wealth.  He  may,  by  his  own  exer 
tions  and  by  his  own  tact,  obtain  the  suffrages  of 
his  fellow-voters.  This  means  a  good  deal  to  men 
who,  in  the  land  of  their  birth,  would  strive  in  vain 
to  enter  the  House  of  Commons.  The  multiplicity 
of  governments — states  without  end,  almost, — gives 
every  man  a  chance.  The  Governors  of  States  are 
of  all  nationalities;  holders  of  high  judicial  offices — 
so  many  of  which  are  elective — belong  to  a  dozen 
different  nationalities.  Heads  of  great  enterprises  in 
the  commercial  and  the  industrial  worlds  are  often 
men  who  have  come  from  other  lands.  There  is, 

84 


NATURALIZATION 

there  can  be  no  question  of  the  great  material  ad 
vantages  of  naturalization  in  this  respect. 

But  in  other  respects,  these  advantages  do  not 
exist  for  the  Briton,  while  they  are  a  main  factor  in 
the  determination  of  immigrants  of  other  races  to 
become  American  citizens.  The  Spaniard,  the 
Italian,  the  German,  the  Russian  derive  unquestion 
able  benefit  from  American  citizenship,  which  gives 
them  what  they  have  not  at  all,  or  have  not  to  any 
thing  like  the  same  extent  in  their  own  land:  free 
dom,  equality  before  the  law,  justice,  often  rough 
and  uneven,  yet  justice  on  the  whole,  and,  most 
prized  by  them,  immunity  from  forced  military  ser 
vice.  They  attain  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of 
conscience,  of  worship,  of  thought,  of  publicity. 
These  are  things  which  they  appreciate.  The  Briton 
possesses  them  all,  and  some  of  them  in  a  greater 
and  more  perfect  degree  than  his  American  kinsman. 
He  has  naught  to  gain  in  this  respect. 

Hence  he  is  less  amenable  to  the  presentment  of 
the  advantage  to  be  derived  from  changing  from 
the  Union  Jack  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes  than  is  the 
newcomer  from  other  lands,  and  unless  some  real 
material  benefit  is  to  be  obtained,  he  is  not  inclined 
to  renounce  his  Sovereign.  Indeed,  very  often  where 
such  material  advantage  is  within  his  reach,  or 
where  the  simple  process  of  naturalization  would 
save  him  loss  or  damage,  the  Briton  holds  fast  to  his 
native  land  and  prefers  to  forego  what  might  profit 
him  to  parting  with  that  sacred  birthright. 

Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  he  should.  The 
ideals  of  the  two  races,  the  principles  of  their  gov- 

85 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

ernments,  the  purposes  they  seek  to  accomplish,  the 
aims  they  endeavor  to  realize,  are  so  similar  that 
the  Briton  can  further  them  equally  well,  while  in  the 
United  States,  without  changing  his  nationality  as 
by  changing  it.  He  does  not  become  more  public 
spirited,  for  public  spirit  is  not  as  greatly  developed 
in  this  land ;  he  does  not  acquire  greater  respect  for 
law,  for,  by  common  consent,  respect  for  law  is  still 
the  exception  rather  than  the  rule  in  the  United 
States.  He  does  not  exchange  his  ideals  for  higher 
ones,  for  in  practice  the  fulfilling  of  ideals  is  less 
persistently  sought  here.  Thus  he  cannot  improve 
himself  morally  by  becoming  an  American  citizen. 
What  he  is  he  has  become  through  the  home  training 
and  the  home  traditions.  He  is  more  likely,  at  pres 
ent,  at  least,  to  lose  instead  of  gaining.  Why 
should  he  do  so?  If  he  is  to  be  of  further  use  to  the 
people  among  whom  his  lot  is  cast,  it  can  be  only  by 
strict  adherence  to  the  high  principles  which  are 
avowedly  at  the  base  of  British  conceptions  of  public 
life.  And  the  fact  that  a  man  can  resist  temptation 
of  material  improvement  in  his  circumstances  is  in 
itself  an  object  lesson  worth  giving.  There  is  virtue 
in  steadfastness,  and  when  that  steadfastness  in 
volves  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  opportunities  to 
acquire  wealth  or  power,  it  is  worth  imitating  and 
it  is  always  respectable. 

Leaving  aside  the  Briton,  what  of  the  other 
nationalities  which  pour  into  the  country  in  scores  of 
thousands?  It  may  be  said  without  much  fear  of 
contradiction  that  for  them  the  reasons  in  favor  of 
naturalization  are  simply  innumerable  and  over- 

86 


NATURALIZATION 

powering.  There  is  scarcely  one  country  which 
sends  emigrants  to  the  United  States  which  can 
claim  to  offer  to  its  subjects  the  large  share  of  per 
sonal  liberty,  the  guarantee  of  freedom  of  thought 
and  expression,  the  security  against  the  burdens  of 
compulsory  military  service,  or  the  opportunities  of 
advancement  in  every  walk  of  life,  which  this  land 
presents  to  great  and  small.  It  is  a  fact  that  in 
America,  taking  the  name  as  applicable  at  present 
to  the  United  States,  Napoleon's  famous  remark, 
"La  carriere  ouverte  aux  talents,'9  is  a  real  and  solid 
truth.  A  man,  if  energetic,  sober,  trustworthy,  per 
severing,  can  surely  succeed  and  rise  in  life  with  a 
rapidity  and  a  certainty  that  are  nowhere  else  to  be 
obtained.  And  that  this  is  no  exaggeration,  there 
are  examples  and  to  spare  in  proof. 

From  every  point  of  view,  then,  naturalization  is, 
to  the  ordinary  foreigner,  a  signal  gain.  It  gives 
him  a  status  such  as  he  has  never  before  enjoyed;  it 
provides  him  with  chances  of  success  which  have 
never  been  his ;  it  secures  him  in  a  way  he  has  never 
enjoyed,  and  if  he  values  highly  being  an  American 
citizen,  he  is  only  estimating  at  its  right  worth  what 
is  a  high  and  beneficial  privilege. 

The  power  of  assimilation  of  the  United  States  is 
dwelt  upon  frequently  by  Americans  themselves  as 
an  additional  proof  of  the  superiority  of  democracy. 
But  there  are  plain  limitations  to  the  assimilation  of 
certain  of  the  races  that  furnish  large  contingents 
of  immigrants. 

Even  the  passing  visitor,  if  he  reads  the  papers, 
will  note  the  existence  of  what  is  called  the  British- 

87 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

American  vote,  the  Irish- American  vote,  the  German- 
American  vote.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  anything 
more  harmful,  politically,  than  this.  For  in  the 
event  of  some  difficulty  arising  with  Great  Britain, 
with  Germany,  it  is  at  once  assumed  that  the  British- 
American  or  the  German-American  will  array  him 
self  with  the  country  of  his  birth  against  the  land 
of  his  adoption.  That  is  not  in  the  least  likely  to 
be  the  case,  for  the  man  who  has  parted  with  his 
allegiance  for  the  sake  of  some  personal  motive — 
a  very  excellent  or  a  merely  commercial  one,  as  the 
case  may  be — is  not  the  one  to  incur  any  risk  for  the 
sake  of  his  former  compatriots. 

But  the  existence  of  these  bodies  throughout  the 
land  shows  two  things :  that  assimilation  is  not 
nearly  as  thorough  as  it  is  claimed  and  that  this 
class  of  citizens  have  an  altogether  wrong  idea  of 
the  responsibility  of  naturalization. 

The  Irish- Americans  may  be  left  out  of  considera 
tion,  for  with  them  it  is  an  article  of  faith  that  no 
matter  how  many  generations  there  are  between  them 
and  their  ancestors  who  emigrated  to  the  United 
States,  Irish  they  are  first  and  foremost  and  Amer 
icans  only  afterward. 

But  among  the  British  who  have  become  natural 
ized,  many,  if  not  most,  have  changed  their  alle 
giance  from  very  sincere  motives  and  have  become 
true  citizens  of  their  new  country.  They  differ  from 
those  piebald  hybrids  who  one  day  prance  through 
the  streets  under  the  Union  Jack,  in  all  the  glory 
of  uniforms  of  their  own  designing,  and  of  rank 
of  their  own  bestowal,  but  who  on  another  oc- 

88 


NATURALIZATION 

casion    are    vociferating    their     devotion     to     Old 
Glory. 

Now  it  is  certain  that  if  anyone  changes  his  na 
tionality,  he  owes  himself  unrestrictedly  to  his  new 
land,  he  ceases  wholly  to  be  aught  but  an  American. 
For  such  an  one  to  call  himself  a  British- American 
is  a  misnomer:  he  has  deliberately  rejected  Britain, 
and  has  no  right  to  assume  the  name  of  British  any 
more.  When  he  talks  of  the  British  vote,  he  talks 
of  what  does  not  exist  and  cannot  exist,  for  no 
Briton,  not  naturalized  in  America,  can  have  a  vote : 
he  is  an  alien.  And  the  parading  of  the  so-called 
British  vote  is  one  of  the  surest  modes  of  fostering 
the  anti-British  feeling  which  too  readily  comes  to 
the  surface  in  times  of  difference  between  the  two 
countries.  It  is  an  offense  alike  to  the  country  the 
man  has  renounced  and  to  that  he  has  adopted. 


VII 
DEMOCRACY    AND    MILITARISM 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  not  a  military 
nation ;  they  have  no  military  spirit  and  no  military 
ambition;  the  bloody  glories  of  war  do  not  appeal 
to  them;  its  pomp  and  circumstance  have  but  slight 
effect  upon  them.  This  does  not  imply  that  Amer 
icans  are  incapable  of  fighting,  for  the  world  knows 
very  well  that  they  can  fight  sturdily  and  success 
fully.  It  does  not  mean  that  they  lack  military 
courage  or  endurance,  for  they  possess  both,  and 
have  proved  it  in  the  Indian  wars,  in  the  wars  with 
England,  in  the  terrible  conflicts  of  the  Civil  War. 
It  means  simply  that  they  have  not  the  desire  for 
military  glory  that  has  so  long  ruled  in  Europe,  and 
still  inspires  more  than  one  nation  of  the  Old  World. 

This  is  due  to  several  causes.  The  first  is  that 
they  have  no  tradition  of  war  as  a  normal  condition 
of  society,  as  is  the  case  with  every  European  na 
tion.  As  these  slowly  emerged  out  of  the  chaos  pro 
duced  by  the  invasion  of  the  Northern  peoples,  who 
overran  the  Roman  Empire,  the  warrior  became 
necessarily  the  central  figure.  It  was  not  a  case  of 
individual  prowess,  but  of  combination,  which  pro 
duced  the  feudal  system,  linking  all  men  one  to  e-n- 

90 


DEMOCRACY    AND    MILITARISM 

other.  Men  did  not  live  in  isolated  families;  they 
forgathered  round  the  medieval  fortresses  and  the 
abbeys  which  gave  them  protection.  War  was  an 
everyday  occurrence,  and  warlike  qualities  were  con 
sequently  highly  prized.  The  knight  was  the  splen 
did  hero  of  the  time.  Round  him  clustered  the  tales 
of  the  fireside  and  the  songs  of  the  poets  and  wan 
dering  bards.  And  while  slowly  the  state  of  contin 
ual  war  was  replaced  by  a  happier  condition  of 
normal  peace,  the  spirit  which  has  so  long  inspired 
European  nations  lived  and  influenced  the  thoughts 
of  men.  Conquest  still  had  its  charms :  peoples  and 
nations  were  still  viewed  as  the  just  booty  of  the 
stronger,  and  the  rights  of  men  were  trampled  under 
foot  heedlessly,  for  they  were  not  understood.  The 
very  French  Revolution  which  changed  the  face  of 
society  was  itself  speedily  mastered  and  tamed  by  a 
great  warrior,  the  greatest  captain  of  modern  times, 
and  the  military  spirit  received  a  new  lease  of  life 
thanks  to  the  victories  of  Bonaparte.  Even  the  na 
tions  which  had  already  learned  to  value  the  advan 
tages  of  peace,  Great  Britain  first  and  foremost, 
found  themselves  compelled  by  the  inordinate  ambi 
tion  and  restless  energy  of  the  great  conqueror,  to 
turn  to  their  arms  again,  and  to  add  to  their  al 
ready  brilliant  record  of  deeds  of  valor  new  tri 
umphs,  and  new  glories.  The  seas  were  swept  by  the 
British  fleets  and  the  British  cruisers,  and  the  Em 
pire  of  the  Waves  passed  into  the  keeping  of  Albion. 
The  later  jealousies  and  rivalry  of  sovereigns,  the 
new-born  feeling  of  liberty,  which  the  French  had 
scattered  wherever  they  stormed  through  the  lands, 

91 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

brought  about  renewed  conflicts  and  Europe  re 
mained  one  vast  battleground  on  which  contended 
rivals  for  supremacy. 

Very  different  was  it  in  the  new  country  across 
the  wide  Atlantic.  There  men  had  taken  up  arms 
only  when,  in  the  pursuit  of  that  liberty  the  found 
ers  of  the  Union  had  learned  in  Old  England,  they 
found  full  self-government  denied  them.  They  did 
not  fight  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  combat;  they 
fought  for  a  principle,  and,  having  vindicated  it,  laid 
down  the  weapons  with  which  they  had  won  their 
cause.  To  them  the  first  and  chief  purpose  was  not 
extension  of  territory  by  military  measures,  but  the 
development  of  the  land  they  possessed  and  the  im 
provement  of  the  conditions  under  which  they  lived. 
Farmers  had  other  things  to  think  about  than  to 
earn  glory  on  the  tented  field;  fishermen,  better  oc 
cupation  than  sinking  each  other's  craft ;  merchants, 
more  profitable  pursuits  than  destruction  of  the  ne 
cessities  of  life.  War  did  not  appeal  to  them  in  the 
abstract  or  the  concrete.  They  were  primarily  and 
at  bottom  men  of  peace,  who  had  recourse  to  their 
arms  only  for  the  protection  of  their  homes. 

As  the  Union  grew,  as  new  territories  were  added 
and  the  ambitions  of  the  young  Republic  increased, 
there  were  wars  of  extension,  of  conquest,  but  even 
these  failed  to  rouse  permanent  enthusiasm  or  to 
awaken  in  the  people  that  earnest  military  spirit  so 
characteristic  of  most  of  the  European  nations. 
Nor  did  the  War  of  1812  rouse  it  permanently. 
The  successes  then  scored  gratified  the  nation,  but 
did  not  induce  it  to  abandon  its  policy  of  peaceful 

92 


DEMOCRACY    AND   MILITARISM 

development  for  a  career  of  strife.  And  the  tre 
mendous  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  was 
not  of  a  character  to  inspire  men  to  become  enthusi 
astic  over  the  slaying  of  their  brethren. 

The  steady  immigration  that  aided  to  increase  the 
population,  the  opening  up  of  new  territories,  the 
discovery  of  illimitable  sources  of  wealth  ready  to 
the  hand,  turned  men's  thoughts  away  from  ideas  of 
war  and  toward  purposes  of  commerce,  mining  and 
manufacture.  The  making  of  fortunes  was  more 
tempting  than  the  destroying  of  property  and  hu 
man  lives,  no  matter  how  glorious  these  perform 
ances  might  be  made  to  appear.  Even  the  victories 
won  at  sea  failed  to  make  a  deep  and  lasting  im 
pression  upon  the  popular  mind.  The  navy  had  dis 
tinguished  itself,  but  it  did  not  appeal  to  the  people 
as  it  did  and  yet  does  in  England.  The  army  and 
the  navy  were  not  privileged  services,  and  the  mem 
bers  of  either  were  not  looked  upon  as  exalted  above 
the  ordinary  civilian.  Indeed,  as  time  went  on,  the 
tendency  was  rather  to  belittle  these  branches  of  the 
national  service,  and  to  look  down  upon  those  who 
devoted  themselves  to  them.  Nowadays,  as  has  been 
said,  the  fact  that  a  man  holds  a  commission  in  the 
one  or  the  other  does  by  no  means  confer  distinction 
upon  him.  Far  otherwise  is  it  in  Europe.  But  that 
is  because  the  tradition  of  the  imperious  need  of  the 
services  of  the  soldier  and  the  sailor,  and  his  conse 
quent  supposed  superiority  to  the  civilian,  especially 
to  the  civilian  engaged  in  trade  or  commerce,  swayed 
and  sways  the  minds  of  Europeans,  while  it  has  never 
existed  in  the  United  States. 

93 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Another  cause  is  the  feeling,  very  widespread,  that 
war  is,  on  the  whole,  a  ruinous  business,  even  if  one 
comes  out  victorious.  There  is  far  more  common 
sense,  in  this  respect,  among  Americans  than  the 
ordinary  visitor  would  suppose.  There  is  talk  of 
war  now  and  then;  there  are  papers,  of  the  yellow 
variety  in  particular,  which  endeavor  to  inflame 
popular  passions  and  to  create  a  longing  for  a 
fight  with  some  nation  or  other.  But  the  spirit  of 
the  people  is  antagonistic  to  war  in  itself,  not,  it 
must  be  repeated,  through  any  lack  of  courage  or 
capacity  to  fight  hard  and  well,  but  simply  because 
fighting  for  fighting's  sake  does  not  appeal  to  the 
sound  sense  of  the  nation.  This  was  well  seen  at 
the  time  of  the  Venezuela  incident.  At  first,  the 
extraordinary  and  inflammatory  proclamation  of 
President  Cleveland  excited  a  burst  of  enthusiasm. 
The  cry  throughout  the  country  was  for  immediate 
hostilities  with  Britain,  and  already  men  saw  in 
fancy  the  enemy  of  1776  and  1812  humbled  to  the 
dust.  But  with  a  speed  that  must  have  amazed 
those  who  were  not  acquainted  with  American 
"horse  sense,"  things  changed,  and  where  there  had 
been  wild  and  hysterical  clamor  for  instant  death- 
grapple  were  heard  protests  against  the  needless 
shedding  of  blood,  and  declarations  that  better 
methods  than  war  were  extant  for  the  settlement  of 
international  differences.  And  to  this  view  the  entire 
population  rallied,  with  even  greater  spontaneity  than 
it  had  responded  to  the  presidential  trumpet  blast. 
This  disposition  of  the  American  nation  to  prefer 
peace  to  war,  to  prefer  arbitration  to  fighting,  so 

94 


DEMOCRACY    AND    MILITARISM 

often  unjustified,  is  one  of  the  great  causes  of  its 
strength  and  influence  in  the  councils  of  the  world. 
It  is  also  one  of  the  greatest  tributes  to  the  value 
of  democratic  government,  for  the  will  of  the  people 
prevailed  over  the  wish  of  the  ruler. 

A  third  cause  is  the  absence,  from  the  cities  and 
towns  of  the  United  States,  of  the  uniform.  It  is  a 
rare  sight,  comparatively.  The  regular  army  is 
small  in  numbers,  and  so  long  as  danger  was  to  be 
apprehended  from  the  Redskins,  the  few  troops, 
horse  and  foot,  were  stationed  in  far  distant  posts 
as  are  now  the  men  of  the  Canadian  Mounted  Police. 
The  navy,  until  recent  years,  was  insignificant,  and 
even  after  it  had  been  increased  and  the  most  modern 
types  of  ships  added  to  it,  it  failed  to  evoke  any 
very  warm  enthusiasm.  Along  the  shores  of  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  men  might  behold  these  mighty 
engines  of  war  and  inspect  them  when  anchored  in 
their  ports,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  naval 
service  has  become  wildly  popular  in  consequence. 
Indeed,  it  is  in  the  main  not  the  inhabitants  of  the 
seacoasts  who  furnish  the  greater  number  of  naval 
recruits,  but  rather  the  inland  states,  where  no  bat 
tleship  or  cruiser  has  ever  been  seen. 

This  absence  of  the  uniform  in  the  daily  life  of 
the  people,  and  the  consequent  absence  of  military 
or  naval  pageants  whose  very  frequency,  in  the  Old 
World,  contributes  to  maintain  the  military  spirit 
and  to  inflame  the  militarjr  ardor  of  youth,  is  a 
potent  cause  of  the  lack  of  the  war  spirit.  The 
atmosphere  in  the  cities  and  towns  is  commercial,  in 
dustrial,  literary,  political;  it  is  not  military  at  all. 

95 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Young  men  do  not  dream  of  a  career  in  the  army 
or  navy  as  the  finest  they  can  embrace ;  business  or 
the  professions  appeal  to  them  far  more  strongly. 
They  see  everywhere  around  them  testimony  of  suc 
cess  won  along  these  lines ;  they  scarcely  see  any 
proof  of  success  in  fighting.  So  little,  indeed,  is  the 
uniform  a  fetish,  as  it  is  in  the  Old  World,  that  it 
fails  to  produce  in  the  mind  of  the  beholder  that 
admiration  or  that  awe  which  in  Europe  it  almost 
invariably  excites.  If  anything  the  wearing  of  uni 
form  is  apt  to  stir  ridicule  and  to  call  forth  ungener 
ous  remarks  about  "fuss  and  feathers,"  or  else  it  is  a 
bar  to  admission  to  places  of  public  amusement,  a 
condition  of  things  that  would  vastly  astonish  cer 
tain  military  men  in  Europe. 

But  the  most  important  cause  of  all  is,  perhaps, 
the  working  of  that  consequence  of  the  democratic 
principle:  individualism.  This  is  entirely  opposed 
to  discipline  and  unreasoning  obedience,  two  essen 
tials  in  matters  military  and  naval.  The  average 
American  neither  understands  nor  cares  to  under 
stand  discipline  and  blind  obedience.  Every  man 
tends  to  be  a  law  unto  himself,  and  whenever  he 
comes  into  conflict  with  an  established  law,  his  imme 
diate  instinct  is  to  avoid  compliance  with  it.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  legal  profession  has  largely 
adopted  the  practice  of  studying  how  best  law  can 
be  turned  and  nullified.  It  is  the  outcome  of  the 
spirit  here  referred  to,  and  which  manifests  itself 
among  Americans  as  a  disinclination  to  bind  them 
selves  to  absolute  obedience. 

There  are  curious  proofs  of  this  to  be  constantly 
96 


DEMOCRACY    AND   MILITARISM 

met  with.  The  cadets  on  a  training  ship  object  to 
the  food  served  out  to  them,  and  desert  in  a  body. 
The  action  does  not  call  out  immediate  condemna 
tion,  as  a  breach  of  discipline;  on  the  contrary,  all 
manner  of  explanations  and  excuses  and  reasons  are 
put  forward  to  justify  an  action  utterly  subversive 
of  true  discipline.  A  soldier  refuses  to  attend  church 
parade,  and  men  are  inclined  to  look  favorably  upon 
his  objection,  because  the  Constitution  says  some 
thing  about  men  not  being  compelled  to  follow  any 
particular  religion.  At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  war 
the  colonel  of  a  regiment  of  volunteers,  at  Tampa, 
was  compelled  to  address  his  men  on  the  subject  of 
looting  the  negroes'  stalls  and  too  free  indulgence 
in  drink.  He  ended  by  stating  that  the  first  of 
fender  thereafter  would  be  severely  punished,  as  it 
was  his  determination  to  enforce  discipline  in  his 
command.  "The  hell  you  will!"  was  the  audible 
comment  made  by  one  of  the  men,  and  he  went  un- 
rebuked. 

The  public  schools  have,  many  of  them,  organized 
cadet  battalions  or  companies,  and  there  are  private 
schools  in  which  the  wearing  of  the  uniform  is  part 
of  the  regulations,  but  those  sporadic  attempts  at 
militarizing  the  youth  of  the  land  fail  of  their  pur 
pose.  They  remain  civilians  after  all,  and  turn 
their  attention  to  civilian  and  not  to  military  pur 
suits.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  captain 
of  an  athletic  team  is  a  far  greater  man,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  American  youth  of  his  generation,  than  the 
most  famous  soldier  or  the  most  illustrious  sailor  who 
may  be  offered  to  his  admiration.  He  would  rather 

97 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

attain  distinction  on  the  football  field  or  on  the 
diamond  than  win  epaulets.  The  one  appeals  to  him 
directly ;  the  other  very  remotely. 

The  American  loves  the  spectacular;  and  he  de 
sires  to  have  the  spectacle  in  which  he  is  a  prominent 
figure  beheld  by  a  large  concourse.  The  fighting  in 
the  Philippines  was  doubtless  of  a  nature  to  train 
soldiers  and  to  make  officers  reliable  and  steady,  but 
it  had  to  be  carried  on  far  away  from  all  the  sur 
roundings  and  the  cheering  that  the  American  youth 
adores.  He  does  not  crave  to  go  thither,  and  if,  in 
the  course  of  his  duty,  he  is  sent  to  those  remote 
colonial  possessions,  so  little  endeared  yet  to  the 
national  heart,  he  most  naturally  longs  to  return  to 
his  native  land.  He  is  brave,  he  is  intelligent,  he  is 
independent  in  thought  and  in  action;  he  makes  a 
good  soldier  when  he  feels  the  wish  to  be  a  good 
soldier;  and  he  makes  a  first-class  sailor  when  the 
love  of  the  sea  has  gripped  him  and  makes  him  for 
get  much  of  his  democracy,  but  he  is  not  naturally 
borne  toward  the  subjection  of  self  which  is  a  first 
indispensable  step  in  the  formation  of  the  true  mili 
tary  man,  who  must  perforce  learn  to  obey  ere  he 
can  learn  to  command. 

Nor  does  the  American  at  any  age  admire  war  in 
itself.  Yellow  papers  may  shriek  themselves  hoarse, 
as  they  did  before  the  war  with  Spain,  but  they  do 
not  win  over  the  solid  part  of  the  nation,  the  genuine 
Americans.  War  is  not  a  pastime  or  a  means  of 
earning  glory ;  Sherman's  famous  dictum  is  too  often 
quoted  to  permit  of  any  illusion  on  the  score  of  the 
beauties  of  war.  War  is  destructive,  and  the  Amer- 

98 


DEMOCRACY    AND    MILITARISM 

ican  is  the  opposite  of  a  destroyer ;  he  loves  to  build 
up,  to  develop — and  in  this  he  shows  his  profound 
common  sense;  he  is  the  truer  and  the  greater  civil- 
izer  because  of  that  fact.  He  seeks  rather  ways  of 
attaining  his  ends  which  do  not  necessitate  the  em 
ployment  of  brute  force,  and  all  war  means  that  in 
the  end.  He  strives  to  expand,  not  to  diminish,  and 
war  diminishes  the  resources  and  the  welfare  of  the 
nation.  He  will  not  shrink  from  or  shirk  it,  if  it  be 
comes  inevitable,  but  he  will  not  call  for  it  with  a 
light  heart.  There  be,  necessarily,  some  Americans 
who  rejoice  in  any  chance  of  a  row  with  foreign 
countries,  big  or  small,  but  these  do  not  represent  the 
true  national  spirit,  which  is  distinctly  peaceful. 
America  has  made  her  amazing  progress  not  through 
fighting  but  through  industry  and  education;  it  is 
not  inclined  to  try  other  methods  when  the  old  ones 
have  answered  and  still  answer  so  well.  The  plow 
share  and  the  anvil  come  more  readily  to  the  hand 
of  the  inhabitant  of  the  New  World,  and  the  Minute 
Man  of  1776  is  a  true  type  of  his  descendants  as  he 
was  of  his  contemporaries.  Were  the  need  to  arise, 
thousands  on  thousands  of  young  Americans  would 
respond  swiftly  to  the  call  to  arms;  they  did  so  at 
the  time  of  the  Spanish  War,  as  they  had  done  so 
before  when  the  Union  was  threatened.  But  once  the 
job  finished,  once  the  object  attained,  the  soldier 
of  days,  or  weeks,  or  months  or  years,  returns  to  his 
civil  occupations  and  lays  aside  unregretfully  rifle 
and  sword.  He  is  not  a  soldier  first  and  a  citizen 
afterward,  but  a  citizen  always ;  prepared  to  serve 
his  country,  but  opposed  to  forming  part  of  a  stand- 

99 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

ing  army  and  little  inclined  to  man  the  fleet  in  time 
of  peace.  That  preparation  in  piping  times  is  the 
best  guaranty  of  their  continuance  he  hardly  under 
stands,  and  on  the  whole  it  is  he  that  is  right.  His 
country,  thanks  to  its  position,  thanks  to  the  policy 
it  has  consistently  pursued,  can  afford  to  keep  out 
of  the  major  number  of  rows,  which  continually 
threaten  the  peace  of  other  parts  of  the  world.  Of 
late,  it  is  true,  the  chances  of  being  involved  in  diffi 
culties  abroad  have  grown  with  the  growth  of  the 
land  as  a  world-power,  but  the  American  is  a  firm  be 
liever  in  the  virtues  of  arbitration  and  in  the  avoid 
ance  of  unnecessary  strife.  Peace,  if  sought  with 
steadfastness  of  purpose,  can  be  had,  on  the  whole, 
as  readily  as  war,  and  peace  is  distinctly  more  favor 
able  to  a  country  than  turmoil  and  fighting.  The 
spirit  of  the  American  is  the  spirit  of  peace,  as  be 
comes  the  country  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  on 
earth.  The  tone  of  the  higher  press,  the  tone  of 
the  men  of  influence  when  they  speak,  is  not  a  war 
like  one,  but  the  opposite.  The  yellow  press  delights 
in  stirring  up  animosity,  not  so  much  because  its 
directors  desire  quarreling  and  destruction,  as  be 
cause  they  are  keen  business  men  who  exploit  the 
lower  and  lowest  passions  of  their  readers  for  their 
own  personal  advantage.  They  shout  that  the  coun 
try  has  been  insulted,  that  the  national  honor  has 
been  smirched,  that  patriotism  and  a  true  under 
standing  of  the  greatness  of  the  United  States  de 
mand  that  such  and  such  a  country  be  instantly  wiped 
off  the  face  of  the  earth,  but  they  do  this,  not  be 
cause  they  are  naturally  bloodthirsty,  but  simply 

100 


DEMOCRACY    AND   MILITARISM 

because  they  will  sell  more  copies  of  their  abominable 
sheets. 

Again,  the  spirit  of  personal  independence  and 
the  deep-rooted  objection  to  restraint  in  any  form 
militates  against  the  development  of  the  spirit  which, 
in  Europe,  maintains  the  tradition  of  the  superiority 
of  the  soldier  and  sailor,  and  inspires  the  youth  at 
school  with  the  longing  to  be  a  hero.  Discipline  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  things  to  attain  with  the 
average  American:  he  is  rebellious  to  it;  he  insists 
on  having  his  own  way  just  as  much  as  he  can;  he 
has  no  innate,  inbred  respect  for  authority  as  such. 
The  policeman  on  his  beat,  the  teacher  at  his  desk, 
the  Governor  in  his  Executive  Chamber,  the  Presi 
dent  in  the  White  House  do  not  fill  him  with  awe. 
These  are  mortals  like  unto  himself,  and,  in  a  sense, 
under  obligations  to  him  since  it  is  his  vote,  which, 
in  some  way,  has  given  them  the  positions  they  hold. 
He  made  them  and  he  can  unmake  them;  he  does 
unmake  them,  and  throw  them  down  from  time  to 
time.  He  does  not  entertain  toward  them  the  feeling 
of  the  European  for  the  majesty  of  the  institutions 
of  his  land,  incarnate  in  the  persons  of  leaders.  He 
is  himself  the  Sovereign,  and  he  proposes  on  all  occa 
sions  to  maintain  that  sovereignty  and  all  its  attri 
butes  of  irresistible  power. 

He  has  his  own  ideas  as  to  the  way  in  which  he 
should  be  treated,  even  if  he  has  engaged  to  serve. 
The  habits  of  criticism,  of  free  expression  of  opinion 
do  not  fall  from  him  like  a  cloak  when  he  enters 
the  service;  he  carefully  retains  them,  and  uses  them 
on  occasion.  The  sea  lawyer  who  made  trouble  on 

101 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

ships  of  old  is  a  frequent  figure  at  the  present  time, 
and  the  land  lawyer  is  found  quite  as  often  in  the 
ranks  of  the  army. 

Add  to  this  the  disinclination  of  the  people  to 
any  form  of  coercion,  especially  to  military  coercion, 
and  the  lack  of  military  spirit  ceases  to  astonish. 
During  the  troubles  in  the  South  of  France  a  few 
years  ago,  the  Government  found  it  could  not  rely 
on  certain  regiments  because  the  men  in  them  were 
drawn  from  the  population  of  the  angered  depart 
ments.  The  soldiers  fraternized  with  Albert's  fol 
lowers,  and  the  officers  were  helpless.  The  same 
thing  happened  in  the  case  of  the  Church 
troubles,  and  the  same  thing  will  happen  when 
ever  soldiers  of  the  army  of  the  Republic  are 
to  be  employed  against  their  own  countrymen. 
When  the  Empire  flourished  in  France,  Louis 
Napoleon  was  careful  to  remove  the  soldiers 
conscripted  from  a  certain  territory  into  another  far 
away,  so  that  the  difficulty,  palpable  even  then, 
might  not  arise.  But  all  over  the  United  States  the 
feeling  is  the  same,  and  it  makes  no  difference  where 
the  men  come  from:  they  are  all  Americans  and  all 
are  imbued  with  the  same  objection  to  military  rule. 
Invite  them  to  join  a  standing  army,  and  the  preju 
dice  against  it  breaks  out ;  call  upon  them  to  volun 
teer  for  a  foreign  war,  and  the  ranks  are  filled  in  a 
trice,  for  the  love  of  adventure  is  still  strong.  But 
the  love  of  service  is  absent. 

Finally,  there  is  the  difficulty  which  arises  out^of 
the  mingling  of  races.  Germans  and  Irish,  good 
fighters  both,  are  and  remain  primarily  Germans  and 

102 


DEMOCRACY    AND   MILITARISM 

Irish,  and  are  Americans  only  afterward.  They  al 
ways  speak  of  themselves  as  Irish-Americans  and 
German-Americans.  Their  own  nationality  subsists 
untouched,  practically,  and  they  must  be  satisfied 
as  Germans  or  Irish  ere  they  will  enter  upon  any 
enterprise.  They  regard  themselves  as  a  power  in 
the  land  and  with  a  certain  amount  of  reason.  Their 
vote  is  usually  a  solid  vote,  cast  for  the  candidates 
of  their  choice.  They,  especially  the  Irish,  are  more 
disposed  to  require  subserviency  on  the  part  of  the 
whole  nation  than  to  exhibit  it  themselves.  This 
complicates  matters  very  much,  when  it  comes  to 
developing  a  strong  military  spirit  that  cannot  brook 
interference  in  any  form.  An  officer  of  rank,  whose 
position  enabled  him  to  analyze  the  causes  of  the 
difficulties  continually  met  with  in  the  proper  de 
velopment  of  the  army,  speaking  before  the  Military 
Service  Institute,  used  these  remarkable  words : 

"Democracies,  as  a  rule,  represent  peace.  .They 
do  not  respond  to  the  personal  ambitions  of  an  in 
dividual,  nor  are  they  readily  drawn  into  schemes 
for  territorial  aggrandizement  involving  war.  .  .  . 
We  are  of  sanguine  temperament;  we  believe  in  our 
star ;  we  regard  the  law  lightly ;  we  place  thousands 
of  laws  on  the  statute  books,  but  are  lax  in  enforcing 
them.  These  qualities  in  the  military  service  make 
rigid  discipline  impossible.  Deserters,  sentinels 
asleep  on  post,  and  guerrillas  should  be  shot,  but 
with  us  the  penalty  is  rarely  exacted.  Our  patriot 
ism  is  largely  of  the  lip.  That  true  patriotism  which 
regards  the  country  as  the  home  to  be  cherished  and 
protected  within  and  from  without,  even  at  personal 

103 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

sacrifice,  is  not  as  common  as  it  should  be.  It  is 
constantly  being  diluted  by  the  accession  of  for 
eigners  who  are  pleased  to  style  themselves  German- 
or  Irish- Americans,  as  though  they  desired  to  serve 
two  masters.  These  national  characteristics,  which 
become  governmental  ones  in  a  democracy  like  ours, 
make  it  impossible  to  organize  and  discipline  an 
effective  army  from  the  point  of  view  of  military  ex 
perts." 

This  is  perfectly  true,  and  the  somewhat  pessimis 
tic  tone  of  the  speaker  is  justified  by  the  facts.  But 
what  do  the  facts  prove?  Simply  that  the  ideas  and 
traditions  of  the  Old  World  are  incompatible  with 
the  exacting  democratic  principle.  The  Old  World 
has  lived  with  the  military  spirit  for  centuries,  un 
til  it  has  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  life  of  the 
nations ;  until  even  lovers  of  peace  are  ready  to  sub 
scribe  to  the  doctrine  that  one  must  always  be  ready 
for  war,  as  in  the  days  when  no  stay  was  to  be  had 
to  the  internecine  carnage  save  when  the  Church  in 
tervened  and  proclaimed  the  truce  of  God;  until 
statesmen  hesitate  to  make  a  serious  move  toward 
diminution  of  armaments  because  of  the  outcry  that 
at  once  arises,  spite  of  the  genuine  desire  of  the 
taxpayer  to  be  relieved  of  his  crushing  burden.  In 
America,  this  is  not  the  case ;  men  are  accustomed  to 
the  ways  of  peace,  and  not  to  the  habits  of  war ;  they 
are  trained  from  earliest  childhood  in  the  belief  of 
their  own  sovereignty,  and  refuse  to  abdicate  it  on 
behalf  of  any  man  or  set  of  men;  they  do  not  feel 
the  pressing  necessity  of  a  huge  navy  or  a  multi 
tudinous  army,  and  throw  all  manner  of  obstacles  in 


DEMOCRACY    AND   MILITARISM 

the  path  of  the  military  and  naval  enthusiasts.  They 
are  for  peace,  not  for  war ;  for  independence,  not  for 
discipline;  they  care  not  a  fig  for  the  ideas  of 
Europe,  and  they  are  very  keen  on  their  own.  They 
are  a  democratic  community,  democratic  from  its 
very  birth,  and  not  a  democracy  evolved  from  an  au 
tocracy  in  the  course  of  centuries,  and  therefore 
retaining  in  many  respects  traditions  and  habits  and 
beliefs  which  conflict  with  the  fullest  application 
of  the  principle  of  democracy  itself.  The  rigid  dis 
cipline  of  Europe  can  never,  so  long  as  the  United 
States  follows  out  its  appointed  lines,  become  ac 
climatized  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Union.  It 
is  repugnant  to  them,  contrary  to  all  their  inmost 
feelings,  and  destined  not  to  lay  hold  of  the  popula 
tion.  The  Americans  may  fight  great  wars  yet,  but 
they  will  not  fight  them  as  would  European  nations. 
They  will  have  a  way  of  their  own,  as  they  had  at 
the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  and  that  way  will  be  found 
satisfactory  on  the  whole.  And  the  war  over,  they 
will,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  return  to  their 
civil  occupations  and  preoccupations,  and  work  for 
industrial  and  commercial  superiority.  That  is 
where  they  excel;  that  is  where  their  supremacy  will 
most  speedily  assert  itself,  and  who  shall  say,  bearing 
goodwill  toward  men,  that  that  is  not  after  all  the 
best  course  to  pursue. 


VIII 
GOVERNMENT 

Has  (democracy  proved  itself  a  sound  principle  of 
government  or  is  it  a  failure?  That  is  the  question 
which  interests  many  minds  in  the  United  States 
to-day,  and  to  which  different  answers  are  given, 
according  to  the  tendency  of  the  inquirer.  The  pes 
simist,  and  he  exists  in  considerable  numbers,  is  cer 
tain  that  all  the  evils  which  force  themselves  upon 
public  attention  are  due  to  the  attempt  to  govern 
an  immense  territory  and  an  ever-growing  popula 
tion  by  methods  which  are  suitable  in  a  confederacy 
like  Switzerland,  but  which  are  totally  inadequate 
in  a  republic  as  vast  as  the  United  States.  The 
optimist,  who  is  yet  more  numerous,  and  also  more 
clamorous,  is  convinced  that  there  is  but  little  real 
evil,  and  that  what  there  is  will  prove  temporary. 

Yet  some  of  the  strongest  advocates  of  democracy, 
who  are  optimistic  enough  to  see  in  some  of  its  dis 
advantages  incomparable  benefits,  are  fain  to  confess 
that  it  has  failed  in  some  parts  of  the  government; 
municipal  government,  to  wit,  which  is  bad  as  bad 
can  be. 

Lincoln's  celebrated  definition,  "a  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people,"  may 

106 


GOVERNMENT 

soothe  some  troubled  minds  and  lull  the  occasional 
disquietude  of  the  man  in  the  street,  but  it  does  not 
quite  represent  the  existing  conditions  of  democratic 
government,  either  in  the  Federal,  the  State  or  the 
municipal  branch.  It  can  scarcely  be  alleged,  even 
by  the  optimist,  that  the  government  is  "by  the 
people,"  although,  no  doubt,  the  will  of  the  people 
is  supposed  to  prevail  ultimately.  And  in  some 
questions  public  opinion  does  at  times  assert  itself. 
But  the  present  tendency  appears  to  be  rather  in  the 
direction  of  the  creation  and  maintenance  of  per 
sonal  rule;  of  the  setting-up  of  a  man  here  and  a 
man  there  whose  will  becomes  law  and  is  obeyed,  not 
without  murmuring  and  opposition,  but  obeyed  in 
the  end.  Politics  has  become  a  regular  profession, 
a  business  to  which  some  devote  themselves  exactly 
as  others  devote  themselves  to  manufacturing  or 
other  occupation.  It  has  turned  into  a  trade  with 
many,  a  lucrative  trade  in  which  plums  abound  for 
the  man  whose  scruples  form  the  lightest  part  of  his 
moral  burden.  The  great  majority  of  the  voters,  in 
this  country  of  universal  suffrage,  do  not  take  the 
pains  to  inform  themselves,  to  study  the  questions  of 
the  hour,  to  solve  the  problems  which  present  diffi 
culties.  They  are  content,  and  this  is  true  of  many 
a  well-educated  man  as  of  the  more  ignorant,  to 
leave  the  direction  and  management  of  affairs  to 
those  who  make  it  their  business  to  settle  these  things 
• — "for  what  there  is  in  it  for  them,"  as  the  phrase 
goes.  In  principle  democratic,  the  government  of 
the  country  is  largely  autocratic  by  the  consent  of 
the  governed. 

107 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

It  is  a  curious  commentary — the  sarcasm  of  which 
seems  to  be  hidden  from  the  people — it  is  a  curious 
commentary  upon  the  democratic  character  of  the 
Federal  Government  that  for  many  years  it  allowed 
itself  to  be  presided  over  by  an  official  whose  per 
sonal  power  exceeded  that  of  any  constitutional 
sovereign;  that  the  Congress  was  directed  and 
administered  by  one  man  in  the  Senate  and 
one  man  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  A  cer 
tain  senator  was  long  known  as  "General  Manager 
of  the  United  States,"  and  an  autocratic  Speaker  of 
the  House  commonly  referred  to  as  "The  Czar." 
Members  of  the  House  who  refused  to  obey  the  dic 
tates  of  that  potentate  were  termed  "insurgents," 
although  an  essential  principle  of  democratic  rep 
resentation  is  that  a  man  shall  have  the  right  to  ex 
press  his  opinions  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  his 
convictions. 

"When  men  who  oppose  a  law  favored  by  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  and  the  President,"  declared  a 
leading  newspaper,  "are  classed  as  'insurgents'  it  is 
plain  that  there  is  back  of  this  characterization 
something  unexpressed.  There  is  a  major  premise 
implied  which  is  not  formulated.  That  premise  can 
be  nothing  else  than  a  declaration  that  the  President 
and  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  separately  or  to 
gether,  have  a  right  to  dictate  what  laws  shall  be 
passed  and  what  shall  not.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we 
know  that  for  years  the  Committee  on  Rules  has 
controlled  legislation  in  the  House.  The  majority 
of  that  committee  is  made  up  of  the  Speaker  and 
two  members  selected  by  him,  so  that  its  decision  is 

108 


GOVERNMENT 

really  that  of  the  Speaker  himself.  Thus  the 
Speaker  has  controlled  legislation  so  long  that  it  has 
come  to  be  thought,  or  at  least  pretended,  that  he 
has  a  right  to  embody  in  himself  the  whole  law- 
making  power  of  the  House.  It  is  admitted  still 
that  no  decree  of  the  Speaker  has  the  force  of  law 
until  it  has  received  a  majority  of  a  quorum  of 
the  House.  But  the  theory  of  the  insurrection  is 
that  the  Speaker  has  a  right  to  command  the  votes 
of  the  members,  at  least  the  votes  of  such  members 
as  belong  to  his  party.  The  party  is  supposed  to 
make  the  Speaker  not  only  the  leader  of  his  party, 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  majority,  but  the  master,  the 
dictator,  who  has  a  right  to  say  how  each  individual 
member  shall  vote.  The  right  of  the  President  to 
dictate  legislation,  so  long  as  he  is  in  accord  with 
the  Speaker,  need  not  come  prominently  into  con 
sideration.  Should  the  Speaker  differ  from  the 
President,  which  he  is  likely  to  do  at  times,  there 
would  be  danger  that  the  faithful  would  be  troubled 
with  a  divided  allegiance,  and  would  be  compelled 
to  become  insurgents  against  one  or  the  other  para 
mount  authority,  thus  illustrating  the  old  scholastic 
puzzle  of  an  irresistible  force  encountering  an  immov 
able  obstacle.  In  point  of  fact,  there  is  no  room  in 
a  republic  for  two  paramount  authorities,  and  it  is 
worthy  of  attention  whether  there  is  room  for  one 
anywhere  except  in  the  concurrence  of  all  the  law- 
making  powers  under  the  requirements  of  the  Federal 
Constitution." 

This  comment  suggests  that  the  danger,  almost 
inevitable  in  a  democracy,  of  tyrannical  rule  has  to  be 

109  " 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

faced  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and,  next, 
that  the  people  themselves  have  yet  to  be  educated 
to  take  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  administration 
of  their  own  affairs,  if  their  government  is  to  remain 
what  Lincoln  declared  it  to  be.  But  it  may  be  per 
mitted  to  doubt  whether  aside  from  the  best  minds 
in  the  country,  the  best  educated  men  in  the  various 
communities,  the  people  generally  understand  that  a 
democratic  government  is  no  more  free  from  the  pos 
sibilities  of  autocracy,  tyranny  and  corruption  than 
any  monarchial  government  that  ever  existed.  It  is 
with  very  many  Americans  of  the  present  day  as  it 
was  with  the  French  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution: 
they  are  apt  to  be  blinded  and  deceived  by  words,  not 
perceiving  that  names  are  but  names,  after  all,  and 
often  conceal  the  absence  of  the  thing  they  are  sup 
posed  to  represent.  A  republic  may  be  and  often 
is  a  pure  tyranny;  it  may  have  and  in  the  United 
States  certainly  has,  the  elements  of  autocracy  and 
despotism  in  large  measure,  and  this  was  clearly  per 
ceived  by  that  patriot  who  said  "Eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  liberty."  But  it  is  precisely  that 
eternal  vigilance  which  is  lacking  in  the  Americans. 
The  illusion  that  because  they  are  Americans,  be 
cause  they  possess  a  Constitution  of  which  they  are 
immeasurably  proud,  because  they  are  wealthy, 
prosperous,  because  they  are  the  greatest  nation  on 
earth,  therefore  they  are  safe  from  the  dangers  and 
evils  which  threaten  other  countries,  that  illusion 
leads  very  many  of  them  to  neglect  their  plain  duty 
as  citizens,  and,  joined  to  the  universal  desire  for 
the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  money  and  yet  more 

110 


GOVERNMENT 

money,  draws  them  away  from  that  part  of  their 
functions  which,  as  citizens  of  a  democratic  republic, 
is  the  most  important  and  ought  to  have  their  chief 
consideration. 

They  are  not  unintelligent;  very  far  from  it.  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  some  fail  to 
see  that  there  are  dangers,  do  not  note  the  steady 
tendency  toward  autocracy,  but  they  have  faith  in 
their  fetish,  democracy,  exactly  as  we  British  have 
faith  in  our  ability  to  "muddle  through"  the  com 
plications  in  which  our  lack  of  foresight  and  our 
neglect  of  experience  land  us  continually.  What  is 
wanting  in  the  United  States  is  a  more  vigorous  pub 
lic  spirit:  that  spirit  which  makes  men  interest 
themselves  in  the  government,  not  simply  by  mildly 
or  virulently  criticizing  it ;  not  by  bewailing  the  fact 
that  unworthy  persons  are  too  often  enabled  to  cap 
ture  the  popular  vote ;  not  by  lasting  reproaches  at 
the  recalcitrant  or  lazy  members  of  their  party  who 
have  failed  to  come  to  the  polls  and  have  thus  al 
lowed  the  enemy  to  win  the  victory ;  not  by  reading 
the  papers  and  languidly  acquiescing  in  articles  con 
demnatory  of  corruption  or  misgovernment,  but  by 
taking  hold  themselves,  by  having  a  mind,  a  clear 
mind  of  their  own  on  the  subjects  that  come  up,  and 
the  moral  courage  to  stand  up  and  fight  for  the 
right,  no  matter  what  others  may  say  or  do.  The 
curse  of  the  democracy  is  that  the  best  men  have 
often  not  the  force  of  character  needed  to  make 
them  stand  up  against  the  degrading  element,  the 
corrupting  faction.  They  hate  the  thought  of  soil 
ing  themselves  with  the  pitch  of  politics,  especially 

111 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  municipal  politics.  They  prefer  to  suffer  in  their 
purses,  in  their  sense  of  right,  to  putting  their  hand 
to  the  work  and  determinedly  purifying  and  main 
taining  pure  the  administration  of  the  city,  the 
State  or  the  Union. 

Too  much  preoccupied  with  the  conduct  of  their 
private  business  they  allow  public  business  to  fall 
frequently,  far  too  frequently,  into  the  hands  of 
those  who  have  not  even  the  remotest  conception 
of  public  spirit  and  public  duty,  but  look  upon  the 
treasury,  whether  of  the  city,  the  State  or  the  Na 
tion,  as  a  mine  to  be  worked  for  their  own  personal 
profit.  They  suffer,  and  they  know  they  suffer,  in 
their  purse,  because  the  legislators  seek  ever  more 
and  more  "pork,"  as  it  is  elegantly  termed,  but  it  is 
less  trouble  to  pay  out  money  in  this  way  than  to 
take  the  time  from  the  making  of  money  to  secure 
purity  of  government  and  uprightness  in  legisla 
tion. 

It  is  not  the  people  who  rule  in  the  United  States ; 
at  least  the  people  rule  but  occasionally,  spasmodi 
cally;  it  is  the  bosses.  These  men,  able  and  un 
scrupulous — the  latter  they  must  be  and  the  former 
they  need  to  be — are  the  real  governing  body.  They 
select  the  persons  whom  they  choose  to  have  put  in 
office;  they  assign  to  each  of  them  the  position  to 
which  they  are  to  be  elected  by  the  free  and  "inde 
pendent"  ;  they  gather  the  funds  required  for  the 
providing  of  the  "free  and  independent"  votes  that 
are  to  secure  success;  they  direct  the  election;  they 
take  care  that  no  method,  however  ingenious,  of 
depositing  ballots  shall  prevent  their  learning 


GOVERNMENT 

whether  the  voters  have  obeyed  the  orders  given 
them;  they  have  a  hold  on  the  elect,  who  owe  their 
places  to  them,  and  they  use  that  hold  to  further 
their  own  schemes.  It  happens,  in  some  cases,  that 
there  is  a  revolt  against  their  authority.  Such 
small  matters  never  worry  them;  they  know  the 
apathy  of  the  voter  in  general ;  they  know  how  short 
lived,  as  a  rule,  is  the  enthusiasm  for  reform,  and 
how  strong  are  the  tendencies  and  inclinations  not  to 
bother  with  politics  on  the  part  of  those  who  alone, 
by  their  education  and  their  standing  in  the  com 
munity,  can  insure  the  permanent  triumph  of  reform. 
They  are  not  discouraged,  for  they  are  well  aware 
that  the  wave  of  indignation  is  soon  spent,  and  that 
once  it  has  ebbed  back  they  will  come  into  their  own 
again.  For  it  is  their  own ;  they  look  upon  govern 
ment,  in  any  of  its  forms,  and  with  its  numerous  de 
partments,  as  their  property.  It  is  their  own,  for 
they  have  carefully,  and  with  much  thought,  con 
structed  the  "machine"  which  grinds  out  candidates 
and  elects  them,  and  declares  with  pomp  that  once 
more  has  the  Sovereign  People  spoken  in  its  might. 
They  thoroughly  understand  their  business ;  they  are 
not  amateurs,  but  professionals ;  they  have  studied 
the  ins  and  outs  of  it ;  they  have  proved  its  possi 
bilities  ;  they  understand  the  secret  ways  of  the  craft, 
and  they  are  past  masters  in  the  art  of  fooling  or 
overawing  the  people,  as  may  be  required.  They 
are  the  natural,  the  logical  result  of  democracy; 
the  weed  that  attacks  it ;  the  poison  that  runs  in  it. 
They  are  the  outcome  of  the  system  of  universal 
suffrage,  which  is  admirable  in  principle,  and  pretty 

113 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

bad  in  practice.  Men  need  leaders ;  that  they  know, 
as  they  know  so  much  else.  When  leaders  are  offered 
them  ready  to  hand,  the  people  are  apt  to  take  them, 
without  inquiring  too  particularly  into  their  quali 
fications.  The  moment  the  leaders  are  found  to  be 
unworthy  they  are  not  at  once,  as  might  be  sup 
posed,  dismissed  with  contumely ;  some  are,  and 
suffer  for  the  sins  of  others  as  well  as  for  their 
own ;  but  generally  they  continue  to  hold  their  posi 
tions,  and  the  laxity  of  public  opinion  is  such  that 
the  chances  are  that  at  the  very  next  election  the 
very  same  men  will  once  more  be  intrusted  with 
power. 

The  machine  is  not  to  be  trifled  with.  All  Amer 
icans — they  are  never  weary  of  proclaiming  that — 
are  free  men,  yet  all  Americans  obey  the  orders  of 
the  machine  with  a  docility  that  is  amazing.  At 
times  they  "revolt"  and  refuse  to  obey  the  behests 
of  the  bosses,  but  that  phenomenon  is  never  to  be 
taken  as  a  guaranty  of  future  independence.  As  a 
rule,  what  the  leaders  of  the  party,  of  the  State,  of 
the  city,  of  the  ward  or  district  say  "goes"  and  the 
voter  meekly  deposits  his  ballot  in  accordance  with 
the  command  he  has  received. 

Were  the  suffrage  confined  to  the  really  educated 
class  the  greatest  power  of  the  machine  would  vanish. 
It  is  because  suffrage  is  universal,  because  the  ig 
norant  and  the  venal  far  outnumber  the  intelligent 
and  the  honorable  that  politics  has  fallen  to  so  low 
an  ebb  in  the  United  States.  Education,  of  course, 
is  the  remedy;  not  only  the  common  school  educa 
tion  but  that  which  the  press,  or  part  of  it,  is  giving 

114. 


GOVERNMENT 

incessantly :  education  in  the  principles  of  true  demo 
cratic  government;  the  education  which  admirable 
societies,  organized  for  the  purpose,  are  daily  press 
ing  upon  the  constituencies,  with  some  measure  of 
success  even  now,  and  with  promise  of  far  larger  re 
sults  in  the  course  of  a  generation  or  two.  Thanks 
to  this  propaganda  there  are  very  excellent  men  pre 
senting  themselves  for  Congress,  and  their  influence 
tells,  especially  upon  a  people  interested  in  public 
affairs  to  the  extent,  at  least,  of  criticizing,  if  not 
of  acting  steadily  and  perseveringly.  With  the 
growth  of  genuine  public  spirit,  which  shall  lead  men 
of  position  and  responsibility  to  assume  the  duties 
which  naturally  fall  upon  them,  yet  greater  improve 
ment  will  be  manifest.  The  objection  to  politics  at 
present  is  that  scarcely  will  a  decent  man  enter  into 
it.  But  if  decent  men  avoid  practical  politics,  the 
inevitable  result  is  that  the  undesirable  class  gets 
hold  of  it,  and  turns  it  into  the  slough  of  corruption 
which  at  this  moment  it  largely  is.  Had  Hercules 
felt  the  same  repugnance  at  entering  the  task  of 
cleaning  the  Augean  stables,  he  would  not  have  been 
the  legendary  hero  so  often  sung.  The  best  Amer 
icans  are  none  too  good  for  the  task  of  administer 
ing  the  municipal,  State  and  Federal  affairs ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  they  who  are  bound  by  every  consid 
eration  of  duty,  honor  and  patriotism  to  undertake 
the  work,  for  it  is  they  who  best  understand  the 
magnitude  and  difficulty  of  making  the  great  experi 
ment  of  democracy  successful  when  it  is  on  the  scale 
it  exhibits  in  the  United  States.  It  is  they  who  have 
the  training  and  the  education  necessary  to  success, 

115 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  because  they  have  these,  they  have  a  responsibil 
ity  far  greater  than  that  which  falls  upon  millions  of 
their  fellow-citizens,  incapable,  by  reason  of  imper 
fect  political  education  and  undeveloped  or  non 
existent  loftiness  of  thoughts  and  ideals,  of  guiding 
properly  and  safely  the  destinies  of  cities,  States  or 
the  Nation. 

The  Federal  Government  attracts  some  of  the 
master  men  of  the  land,  and  happy  is  it  for  the 
country  that  it  does  so.  More  than  one  holding 
Cabinet  office  has  willingly  sacrificed  private  pros 
pects  to  public  duty.  The  spirit  which  animates 
these  men  is  the  spirit  which  makes  democracy  tri 
umphant,  and  which  gives  the  land  good  govern 
ment.  It  is  the  spirit  which  should,  but  as  a  rule 
does  not,  inspire  those  who  in  State  or  city,  ought 
to  take  upon  themselves  the  burden  of  affairs.  There 
are  among  those  Cabinet  officers  men  whom  all  the 
storm  of  abuse,  invariably  to  be  expected  by  those 
in  high  places,  cannot  swerve  from  their  duty; 
whom  the  revilings  of  the  ignorant  and  the  insults  of 
the  corrupt  cannot  move  from  their  righteous  pur 
pose.  And  in  the  business  world,  in  the  literary 
world,  in  the  professional  circles,  are  very  many 
more  men  of  the  same  high  order,  but  not  yet  ready, 
and  certainly  unwilling,  to  recognize  the  fact  that 
every  man  in  a  democratic  community  owes  himself 
to  the  community,  is  bound  to  discharge  the  duties 
of  his  station  toward  his  fellows,  and  may  not  re 
serve  for  his  own  private  benefit  and  advantage  those 
powers  and  qualities  and  talents  he  is  endowed  with, 
and  which  the  community  has  in  some  measure,  and 

116 


GOVERNMENT 

in  some  way  or  other,  enabled  him  to  develop  and 
profit  by.  Public  spirit,  the  highest  and  greatest  form 
of  public  spirit,  is  the  great  need  of  men  in  the  United 
States.  They  may  shirk,  as  so  many  of  them  do, 
the  work  that  lies  before  them,  but  they  must  learn 
the  bitter  lesson  that  the  citizens  of  a  democratic 
state  who  flinch  from  the  fulfillment  of  their  obliga 
tions  as  citizens  are  themselves  directly  responsible 
for  the  corruption  and  the  wrong-doing  they  bewail, 
for  the  deterioration  of  the  sound  principles  which 
guided  the  founders  of  the  Union,  for  the  evil  repu 
tation  which  democratic  government,  in  some  of  its 
manifestations,  has  earned  for  itself.  They  are 
their  brothers'  keepers  in  very  sooth,  and  they  can 
not  avoid  the  blame  for  the  failure  of  a  system  ex 
cellent  in  itself,  based  on  justice  and  common  sense, 
but  which  cannot  work  satisfactorily  unless  all  who 
form  part  of  it  do  their  duty  toward  the  common 
wealth. 

It  is  idle  to  urge  that  politics  takes  too  much 
valuable  time;  that  it  is  unpleasant  and  repulsive 
in  many  of  its  aspects ;  that  men  are  better  engaged 
in  developing  the  material  resources  of  the  com 
munity.  These  things  are  true,  in  a  measure.  Poli 
tics  undoubtedly  is  often  filthy  business,  but  it  is  so 
only  because  the  best  men  refrain  from  entering 
upon  it,  else  it  would  be  clean  as  is  the  conduct  of 
their  own  affairs ;  it  is  true  that  it  takes  much  time, 
but  that  is  particularly  the  case  under  present  con 
ditions,  when  men  do  in  politics  what  they  would 
never  dream  of  allowing  to  be  done  in  their  homes 
or  in  their  offices:  permit  corruption  and  evil  to 

117 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

grow  and  accumulate  until  they  become  absolutely 
unbearable  even  to  the  easy-going  people  they  are. 
Then  they  make  a  mighty,  but  brief  effort,  and 
having  effected  a  partial  cleansing,  relapse  into  their 
former  indifference.  The  "practical"  politician,  the 
professional  boss,  the  systematic  corruptionist,  on 
the  other  hand,  never  relaxes  his  efforts,  never 
wearies  of  the  details  to  which  he  knows  he  must 
faithfully  attend  if  he  is  to  maintain  his  hold.  He 
is  continually  at  work,  constantly  on  the  watch,  and 
it  is  this  eternal  vigilance  which  secures  him  the 
command.  Something  of  this  same  effective  method, 
applied  to  maintaining  the  interest  of  the  better 
men  in  the  affairs  of  the  city  or  the  State,  would  go 
far  to  redeem  democratic  government  from  the 
stigma  which  has  too  justly  been  put  upon  it,  but, 
at  present,  the  evil-doers,  politically,  are  energetic, 
and  the  well-doers  apathetic. 

Universal  suffrage,  granted  as  it  is  to  thousands 
of  men  who  have  no  proper  conception  of  the  duties 
of  the  citizen  toward  the  State,  has  another  fatal 
consequence :  it  makes  the  employee  the  master  of 
the  employer.  This  is  self-evident  in  municipalities, 
where  the  servants  of  the  city  hold  in  their  hands 
the  fate  of  the  administrators,  and  use  that  power, 
not  for  the  advantage  of  the  community,  but  for 
their  own  betterment.  They  are  paid  more  highly, 
and  they  do  less  work  than  similar  men  in  similar 
occupations  not  municipally  controlled.  And  the 
fact  that  it  is  profitable  to  the  laboring  man,  pos 
sessed  of  a  vote,  to  work  for  a  municipality  rather 
than  for  a  firm,  a  company  or  a  private  individual, 

118 


GOVERNMENT 

has  led  to  ever-increasing  demands  for  the  establish 
ment  of  municipal  ownership  of  many  of  the  cor 
porations  engaged  in  supplying  towns  and  cities  with 
light,  transportation,  or  other  conveniences.  It  is 
certain  that  municipal  ownership  in  the  democratic 
United  States  would  mean  waste  of  money  and  labor, 
and  the  greater  spread  of  that  deep  corruption 
which  is  even  now  being  fought  by  part  of  the  press 
and  part  of  the  public.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
point  out  a  municipality  administered  entirely  on 
sound  economic  principles ;  there  are  a  few  like  that, 
brilliant  exceptions ;  but  they  are  very  few  indeed. 
In  most  cities  and  towns  corruption  is  rife  and  per 
sonal  interests  govern.  The  citizens  know  this, 
mourn  over  it,  complain  of  it,  and  fold  their  arms 
in  apathetic  discontent.  It  is  astonishing  to  see  a 
community  endure  the  mismanagement,  prodigality 
and  dishonesty  which  are  termed  municipal  govern 
ment,  and  make  no  effort  worth  the  name  to  purify 
and  reform  the  system.  It  is  not  an  occasional  up 
rising  that  can  effect  permanent  good,  yet  the  in 
telligence  of  the  intelligent  American  seems  inade 
quate  to  grasp  this  patent  fact.  Men  at  the  head 
of  large  industries,  of  a  vast  business,  acknowledge 
frankly  that  the  condition  of  things  is  as  bad  as  it 
can  be.  But  it  is  rare  to  find  these  men  taking  up  the 
task  of  reform  and  sticking  to  it  year  after  year. 
Philadelphia  went  in  vigorously  for  reform,  Boston 
became  tremendously  excited  over  it,  New  York 
"went  for"  Tammany  with  a  whoop,  and  then,  after 
a  time,  the  same  old  business  reappeared  and  men 
sighed  and  vowed  it  was  useless  to  try  to  do  more. 

119 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

It  is  the  energetic  perseverance,  and  the  unceasing 
civic  education  which  alone  can  be  relied  upon  to 
produce  lasting  results.  Citizens  of  worth — and  how 
many  citizens  of  high  worth  there  are  in  these  munici 
palities — men  who  are  an  honor  to  their  land  and 
their  abiding  place,  must  determine  that  among  the 
duties  of  the  position  they  occupy,  one  of  the  fore 
most  and  most  important  is  to  maintain  municipal 
government  on  a  high  plane  of  honesty  and  efficiency. 

For  the  municipality  is  a  school  from  which  poli 
ticians,  ambitious  of  entering  a  higher  sphere, 
graduate.  If  the  municipality  is  corrupt,  what  shall 
be  expected  of  the  State  or  the  Nation?  If  the  men 
who  pass  from  the  Council  chamber  to  the  halls  of 
Congress  have  studied  the  art  and  science  of  "graft" 
and  learned  to  practice  it  with  success ;  if  such  men 
become  the  representatives  of  the  Republic,  what 
shall  be  the  character  of  that  great  Republic?  And 
what  will  be,  what  is  the  effect  upon  the  minds  of 
the  younger  generation,  ardent  in  its  turn  to  attain 
to  positions  of  trust  and  power?  Will  it  enter  on 
its  career  with  a  lofty  sense  of  duty  to  city,  State 
or  Nation?  Or  will  it  not  rather  adopt  the  base 
conception  of  politics,  so  widely  prevalent  at  pres 
ent,  that  it  is  a  fat  business  for  the  wily  and  un 
scrupulous  man  to  take  up?  Will  it  not  rather 
substitute  for  the  discharge  of  public  duty,  the  ideal, 
a  low  one  assuredly,  of  personal  advantage? 

No  man  ever  lives  unto  himself  alone,  and  in  no 
case  is  that  truer  than  in  that  of  the  citizen  of  a 
republic.  Every  citizen  has  a  duty  to  his  fellows, 
to  the  commonwealth,  and  that  duty  has  to  be  per- 

120 


GOVERNMENT 

formed  in  every  part  of  the  administration.  The 
more  onerous  the  work,  the  more  prepared  for  it 
must  be  the  candidate  who  seeks  the  place.  The 
more  difficult  the  position,  the  more  honorable  must 
he  be  who  is  to  fill  it.  This  truth  is  one  that  needs 
to  be  driven  home  into  the  mind  of  every  youth  in 
America;  drilled  into  him,  burned  into  him.  He 
must  be  taught  from  his  earliest  years  that  equality 
of  opportunities,  which  is  the  slogan  of  the  demo 
cratic  orator,  involves  inseparably  equality  of  re 
sponsibilities ;  that  he  cannot  shift  to  the  shoulders 
of  another  the  task  which  is  his  to  fulfill;  that  he 
cannot  stand  aside  from  the  strife  and  say  he  prefers 
to  make  money  for  himself  and  to  secure  a  position 
in  which  he  shall  have  neither  care  nor  anxiety. 

The  citizen  of  a  democratic  state  cannot  choose 
what  he  would  and  what  he  would  not  do  with  regard 
to  public  affairs.  It  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  birth 
right  of  which  he  is  proud  that  duty  accompanies 
him  from  birth  to  the  grave ;  public  duty,  as  well  as 
private  duty.  He  is  bound  by  all  he  enjoys,  by  the 
freedom  given  him,  by  the  justice  meted  out  to  him, 
by  the  opportunities  of  rising  and  proving  his  abili 
ties,  by  the  chances  set  before  him  of  enriching  him 
self  honorably;  he  is  bound  by  all  these  things  to 
give  the  best  part  of  himself  to  his  land  and  to  its 
pure  and  just  administration.  That  is  why  he  is 
a  member  of  a  democratic  commonwealth ;  not  mere 
ly  for  selfish  purposes,  not  merely  for  personal  ad 
vantage,  but  to  contribute,  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  to  the  welfare,  moral  and  material,  political 
and  social,  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The  sovereignty 

121 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  which  he  is  apt  to  boast  is  illusory  and  degen 
erates  into  tyranny  if  its  responsibilities  are  evaded ; 
the  liberty  he  claims  to  enjoy  is  vain  if  it  be  confined 
to  himself.  Selfishness  and  greed  never  made  a  na 
tion  great,  and  a  great  nation  will  become  a  small 
one,  morally,  if  its  people  neglect  to  do  that  to 
which  they  are  called. 

The  fatal  inclination  to  neglect  the  personal  duty 
of  the  citizen  leads  infallibly  to  the  destruction  of 
the  democracy.  Even  at  this  hour  the  tendency  to 
extend  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government,  the 
already  immense  powers  of  the  President,  means 
naught  else  than  the  weakening  of  the  democratic 
principle.  It  is  in  large  measure  a  desire  to  shirk 
the  responsibility  of  meeting  difficulties  and  over 
coming  them;  of  avoiding  problems  the  solution  of 
which  demands  patience,  application  and  intelligence ; 
the  wish  to  be  rid  of  what  is  uncomfortable  and 
troublesome,  all  of  which  would  be  perfectly  legiti 
mate  under  an  autocracy,  where  men  are  not  per 
mitted  to  share  in  the  administration  of  public  af 
fairs,  but  which  is  singularly  wrong  in  a  common 
wealth.  It  springs  from  a  tendency  to  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  democracy  without  bearing  its  bur 
dens  and  responsibilities ;  it  is  a  selfish  way  of  avoid 
ing  the  unpleasant ;  and  selfishness  and  disregard  of 
responsibilities  are  two  of  the  most  dangerous  ele 
ments  in  the  gradual  destruction  of  a  real  democracy. 
The  growth  of  the  tendency  means  nothing  else  than 
the  concurrent  growth  of  autocratic  government; 
and  while  it  may  seem  to  many  that  this  is  an  exag 
geration,  but  a  little  reflection,  a  little  recollection, 


GOVERNMENT 

will  speedily  show  that  it  is  no  more  than  the  simple 
truth.  Leaders  are  vastly  useful  persons,  so  long 
as  they  are  not  permitted  to  become  self-appointed 
dictators,  and  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
already  had  experience  enough  of  the  facility  with 
which  such  a  result  is  brought  about,  and  of  the 
painful  consequences  to  themselves  of  the  domination 
of  an  individual,  to  be  on  their  guard  against  pos 
sible  extension  of  the  habit  to  the  Federal  Govern 
ment.  Having  been  ruled  by  a  General  Manager 
and  a  Czar,  they  ought  to  have  learned  that  however 
excellent  a  man  may  be  in  the  position  he  fills,  how 
ever  able  and  disinterested,  it  is  almost  inevitable 
that  with  the  growth  of  power  the  desire  for  more 
power  should  arise  in  him.  And  if  it  does  not  do  so 
in  one,  it  will  very  certainly  in  another.  The  French 
Republic,  almost  insanely  democratic,  was  enslaved 
by  Bonaparte.  It  is  certain  that  the  comparison 
between  the  France  of  the  beginning  of  the  past  cen 
tury  and  the  United  States  of  the  present,  is  at 
least  imperfect,  yet  there  is  an  analogy  in  the  two 
cases.  France  was  and  is  a  military  nation,  pro 
foundly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  discipline  and  of 
obedience  to  the  chief.  The  United  States  is  not  a 
military  nation,  and  the  people  are  by  no  means  im 
bued  with  the  spirit  of  obedience  to  military  leaders, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  readily  yield  to  political 
bosses ;  they  are  quick  to  abandon  much  of  their 
power  if  only  thereby  they  may  be  discharged  of  a 
part  of  their  responsibilities,  and  in  this  lies  the 
danger.  It  does  not  make  much  difference,  in  the 
long  run,  by  what  methods  a  nation  loses  its  fulness 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  independence  and  its  self-reliance,  and  these 
methods  may  be  political  quite  as  well  as  military. 

Further,  the  growth  of  the  tendency  to  paternal 
ism  in  government,  which  quickly  turns  to  tyranny, 
is  dangerous  because  the  government,  in  the  end,  is 
dependent,  for  the  election  of  its  head,  upon  the 
mass  of  the  voters,  and  these  being  controlled  by 
bosses,  by  corporations,  by  trusts,  will  give  control 
to  them  over  larger  domains  of  public  activity.  Rife 
already  are  the  complaints  of  the  cruel  oppression 
of  the  trusts,  of  the  overbearing  or  insolent  attitude 
of  the  heads  of  the  great  combinations,  who  direct 
affairs  pretty  much  as  they  please,  who  condemn 
the  people,  despise  the  laws,  and  set  at  naught  the 
processes  of  the  courts.  Worse  would  these  be  were 
the  inclination  indulged  in  to  concentrate  yet  larger 
powers  in  one  man's  hands.  The  condition  to  which 
the  House  of  Representatives  was  not  long  since 
reduced  is  itself  an  object  lesson.  That  House, 
which,  in  theory  should  be  representative,  should 
examine  carefully  all  legislation  and  guard  the  in 
terests  of  the  nation  at  large,  degenerated,  by  com 
mon  consent,  into  an  assembly  which  merely  regis 
tered  such  edicts  as  its  Czar  chose  to  permit.  It 
grew  to  play  the  formal  and  impotent  part  of  the 
old  French  parlements,  which  simply  engrossed  the 
laws  ordered  by  the  autocrat.  This  is  neither  demo 
cratic  nor  healthful  politically. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  peculiar  dangers 
of  such  a  situation  are  unperceived.  They  are  not; 
only  they  are  not  sufficiently  perceived  by  the  masses, 
and  the  insidious  character  of  the  change  which  has 


GOVERNMENT 

taken  place  is  not  sufficiently  appreciated.  There 
is  nothing  like  trusting  to  words  and  phrases  to 
blind  oneself;  and  great  reliance  on  words  and 
phrases  is  rather  characteristic  of  the  Americans. 
The  fact  that  their  country  bears  the  name  of  a  Re 
public  seems  to  the  vast  majority  an  entirely  suf 
ficient  safeguard  against  all  possible  political  dan 
gers — which  it  is  not.  We  British  once  possessed 
far  more  of  the  reality  of  democracy,  in  matters 
political,  in  spite  of  appearances  and  names.  The 
monarchy  is  far  less  powerful  than  the  Presidency, 
and  the  House  of  Commons  far  more  truly  ruled  the 
Empire  than  the  House  of  Representatives  the  Re 
public.  That  is  because  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  have  always  taken  a 
direct  and  personal  interest  in  the  conduct  of  affairs ; 
because  they  have  always  jealously  guarded  against 
an  increase  of  power  in  any  one  branch  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  and  have  successfully  maintained  that 
equilibrium  between  them  which  may  chafe  eager 
minds  among  statesmen  and  leaders,  but  which  is 
a  guaranty  of  safety  for  the  body  politic.  It  is 
more  difficult  perchance  to  accomplish  this  in  a  land 
like  the  United  States,  but  who,  believing  in  the 
adaptability  and  the  value  of  the  democratic  prin 
ciple,  would  consent  to  a  confession  of  inability  on 
the  part  of  a  democratic  commonwealth  to  establish 
and  maintain  a  pure  government  which  should  at  the 
same  time  be  a  popular  one? 

It  may  seem  that  the  view  here  taken  is  overpessi- 
mistic,  and  that  the  ideals  set  up  are  unattainable  in 
everyday  practice,  but  neither  of  these  propositions 

125 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

is  right.  A  cursory  review  of  the  conditions  in  the 
United  States,  of  the  legislation  in  Congress,  of  the 
fights  between  honest  governors  and  corrupt  legis 
latures,  of  the  subserviency  of  the  electorate,  of  the 
boldness  and  effrontery  of  the  controllers  of  the 
mighty  trusts  and  railroad  combinations,  of  the  sus 
ceptibility  of  so-called  representatives  to  influences 
of  the  worst  nature,  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  posi 
tion  here  taken.  On  the  other  hand,  a  fairly  inti 
mate  knowledge  of  the  qualities  of  the  average  Amer 
ican,  of  his  capacity  for  intelligent  management,  of 
his  clear-sightedness  and  his  tenacity  when  he  thinks 
it  worth  while  to  use  these  qualities,  of  his  generally 
good  education,  of  his  pride  in  his  country  and  its 
noblest  institutions,  equally  justify  the  belief  in  him 
which,  in  its  turn,  justifies  the  conviction  that  the 
improvement  already  visible  in  public  opinion,  that 
the  hope  of  reform  are  not  the  baseless  fabric  of  a 
vision,  but  a  right  estimate  of  the  future;  of  the 
immediate  future,  let  it  be. 

For  throughout  the  land,  in  large  cities  and  in 
small  towns,  in  the  great  industrial  states  and  in  the 
smaller  agricultural  ones,  there  is  everywhere  a  ris 
ing  tide  of  public  opinion,  inspired  by  able  leaders, 
of  purpose  high  and  unselfish,  patriots  in  the  very 
best  sense  of  the  term,  guided  and  enlightened  by  a 
press  much  of  which  is  daily  apprehending  more 
fully  the  importance  of  its  task  in  a  great  democracy. 
That  public  opinion  will  grow  stronger  day  by  day : 
the  colleges,  the  universities  are  aiding  to  develop 
it;  the  American  youth,  than  whom  none  better  at 
bottom  can  be  found  anywhere  on  earth,  is  being 

126 


GOVERNMENT 

taught  truer  democratic  doctrine  and  studying  more 
and  more  to  fit  himself  for  the  discharge  of  those  im 
portant  duties  which  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  citizen. 
Societies  and  associations  are  formed  in  many  cen 
ters,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  keeping  watch  upon 
the  municipal  governments  and  informing  the  con 
stituencies  of  the  character  of  the  men  who  seek  their 
votes.  All  these  are  not  only  signs  of  a  better  fu 
ture  for  the  democracy,  but  pledges  that  the  care 
lessness  and  neglect,  the  easy-going  indifference  and 
supineness  which  have  marked,  and  still  to  a  large 
extent  mark,  the  attitude  of  the  average  American 
toward  the  questions  of  government,  are  not  to  be 
permitted  to  continue  if  honest  effort  can  destroy 
them  and  replace  them  by  intelligent  and  active  in 
terest  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of 
the  body  politic.  It  is  in  the  youth  of  the  country 
that  the  hope  for  the  future  resides ;  it  is  to  the 
youth  of  the  country  that  the  land  must  look  for 
redemption  from  the  corrupt  practices  that  have  in 
vaded  all  forms  of  the  government,  and  the  country 
will  surely  not  look  in  vain.  If  the  great  military 
nations  of  Europe  can  even  now  inflame  their  peoples 
to  war  by  recalling  the  glorious  traditions  of  un 
numbered  victories,  if  the  British  lad  craves  the  sea 
and  its  strife  as  his  memory  recalls  the  deeds  of  the 
Hawkes  and  the  Drakes  and  the  Ansons  and  the  Nel 
sons  and  the  Collingwoods  and  the  Rodneys  and  the 
Duncans,  if  the  French  youth  is  thrilled  by  recollec 
tions  of  "all  the  glories  of  France"  and  the  Napol 
eonic  epic,  assuredly  the  American  youth  will  not 
less  warm  to  the  task  before  him  when  he  remembers 

127 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  Fathers  of  the  Nation,  and  when  the  names  of 
Washington  and  Hamilton  and  Lincoln  and  so  many 
more  call  to  him  out  of  the  past  to  perfect  the  work 
so  well  begun  by  them ;  by  them,  who  set  their  coun 
try  above  and  before  all,  and  who  recked  not  of  per 
sonal  advantage  so  long  as  they  could  secure  national 
honor  and  national  prosperity. 

Democracy  is  not  on  its  trial,  though  it  is  cus 
tomary  to  say  so.  Democracy  is  proved  capable  of 
promoting  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the  race. 
It  is  only  when  the  principle  is  departed  from,  when 
it  is  set  aside,  that  evil  enters  in.  The  essence  of 
democracy  is  not  now  to  be  called  in  question.  Men 
cannot  deny  its  usefulness  and  its  power;  they  may 
misapply  it,  but  the  moment  they  return  to  it  democ 
racy  will  again  show  its  ability  to  secure  all  that 
is  asked  of  it.  It  is  not  a  passing  form,  an  ephem 
eral  idea;  it  is  the  basis  of  the  civilization  of  the 
future;  it  will  take  many  generations  to  develop  all 
the  blessings  it  contains,  but  none  may  limit  its 
beneficent  action,  none  may  say  it  will  do  this  and 
no  more,  for  as  yet  it  has  not  essentially  failed.  It 
has  been  diverted,  it  has  been  swayed  in  part  from 
its  purpose;  let  only  that  purpose  be  adhered  to 
steadfastly,  let  its  virtue  be  brought  out  and  not 
poisoned  by  corruption,  greed  and  selfishness,  and 
democracy  will  emerge  triumphant.  It  has  in  itself 
the  happiness  of  many  races  yet  unborn,  and  al 
though  it  is  foolishly  applied  to  peoples  unfitted  for 
it  at  once,  it  is  the  true  principle  which  must  remain 
the  abiding  guide  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  the  Old 
World,  of  the  Americans  in  the  New. 

128 


IX 
LAW 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  modern 
American  society  is  the  general  disregard  of  law, 
when  the  law  conflicts  with  the  wishes  or  the  per 
sonal  advantages  of  the  individual. 

American  writers  in  the  press  and  elsewhere  have 
more  than  once  drawn  attention  to  this  singular 
fact,  although  few,  if  any,  have  attempted  to  analyze 
it  and  to  seek  out  its  cause.  Lawlessness,  in  the 
sense  of  violation,  neglect,  contempt  or  evasion  of 
the  law,  is  universal  in  the  country,  and  is  to  be  met 
with  not  alone  among  the  criminal  classes,  which  by 
their  nature  are  in  antagonism  to  law,  but  among  the 
most  educated  and  the  most  respectable  classes  of 
the  community. 

It  may  be  affirmed,  without  exaggeration,  that 
the  plutocrats  accept  the  existence  of  the  law  only 
in  so  far  as  they  can  turn  it  to  account  in  the  execu 
tion  of  their  schemes.  In  such  a  case  they  are 
vigorous  upholders  of  every  part  of  it,  and  they 
exhibit  an  amazing  capacity  for  discovering  its  pow 
ers.  But  in  the  event  of  their  becoming  themselves 
amenable  to  the  punishments  the  laws  decree,  they 
give  proof  of  equal  perspicacity  in  devising  means 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  escaping  the  consequences  of  their  actions  and 
in  twisting  the  law  into  a  defense  and  a  justification 
for  themselves.  A  Scripture  text,  it  has  often  been 
said,  may  be  found  to  support  any  proposition; 
similarly,  the  law,  in  the  United  States,  can  always 
be  made  to  justify  any  violation  of  itself,  provided  a 
sufficient  amount  of  money  is  at  hand  to  defray  the 
fees  of  counsel. 

The  fact  that  not  only  the  Federal  Congress,  but 
also  each  State  legislature  is  empowered  to  make 
laws,  that  the  procedure  in  one  State  is  different 
from  that  in  another,  that  crimes  and  misdemeanors 
are  not  treated  everywhere  in  the  same  fashion,  adds 
to  the  facilities  for  evading  punishment,  and  these 
facilities  are  taken  the  fullest  advantage  of  by  the 
lawyers  engaged  to  defend  a  case. 

Criminal  cases  exemplify  this  truth  in  a  remark 
able  manner.  The  mere  selection  of  a  jury  gives 
rise  to  protracted  disputes  and  discussions,  to  chal 
lenges  of  all  sorts,  peremptory  and  non-peremptory, 
to  squabbles  between  counsel,  to  exceptions  on 
points  of  law — for  this  is  the  main  battleground  of 
the  contending  parties — to  objections  on  the  score 
of  intelligence,  which  is  enlarged  in  its  meaning  to 
comprise  the  faintest  approach  to  an  opinion  of  one 
sort  or  other  on  the  merits  of  the  case  to  be  tried. 
When  at  last,  after  days  and  frequently  weeks  of 
haggling  and  protesting,  of  challenging  and  cross- 
questioning,  a  jury  is  finally  empaneled,  the  chances 
are  a  thousand  to  one  that  the  simplest  issue  will  be 
so  deliberately  befogged  by  the  one  side  or  the  other, 
and  perhaps  by  both,  that  even  the  most  intelligent 

130 


LAW 

and  most  conscientious  jury  would  find  it  impossible 
to  have  a  clear  mind  on  the  question  at  issue.  In 
deed,  the  usual  manner  of  conducting  a  criminal 
trial  appears  to  be  rather  a  test  and  a  public  ex 
hibition  of  forensic  skill  and  ability  to  raise  techni 
calities  than  a  straightforward  attempt  to  get  at  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  the  charge.  The  prosecution  and 
the  defense  equally  strive  to  bewilder  the  minds  of 
the  jury  with  innumerable  objections,  discussed  in 
the  most  heated  manner;  both  seek  to  discredit  the 
witnesses  called  by  the  other  side,  and  manifest  an 
ability  in  the  way  of  moral  torturing  in  comparison 
with  which  the  old  judicial  torture  of  the  body  sinks 
into  relative  insignificance.  Experts  are  called  in 
numbers  on  behalf  of  the  State  or  of  the  defense,  and 
they  contradict  each  other  flatly  with  a  calmness  and 
an  assurance  that  disgust  the  ordinary  person,  who 
has  till  then  believed  that  an  expert  was  one  thor 
oughly  acquainted  with  the  subject  he  professes  to 
know.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  experts  in 
lunacy  and  in  handwriting.  Their  contradictions 
and  opposite  assertions  have,  it  may  be  said,  been 
so  frequent  and  so  gross,  that  the  public,  at  least, 
has  lost  all  faith  in  the  statements  made  by  these 
gentry  under  oath.  They  are  looked  upon  as  men 
paid  very  large  fees  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an 
opinion  in  favor  of  the  side  which  pays  them.  It 
is  doubtless  an  error  to  assume  that  all  experts  are 
thus  minded,  but  the  inference  is  inevitable  when  one 
follows  the  course  of  a  criminal  trial  in  which  a  rich 
man  is  the  defendant  or  where  there  is  "money  to 
burn." 

131 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

The  attitude  of  the  counsel  on  either  side  is  not 
more  laudable.  That  the  counsel  for  the  defense 
should  seek  to  break  down  the  testimony  of  the  wit 
nesses  for  the  prosecution  is  natural ;  that  the  prose 
cution  should  endeavor  to  destroy  the  value  of  the 
evidence  given  by  the  defense  is  intelligible.  But 
that  the  main  reliance  should  be  placed  on  what,  in 
the  essence,  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  hair-split 
ting  or  pettifogging,  is  what  fills  the  spectator,  the 
lay  spectator,  with  regret  and  sorrow. 

The  purpose  of  the  lawyer  appears  to  be  not  the 
elucidation  of  the  truth,  but  the  obscuring  of  it  and 
the  appealing  to  all  the  intricacies  of  the  law  with 
the  object  of  confusing  the  issue  and  preventing  the 
jury  from  gaining  or  retaining  a  clear  idea  of  the 
nature  of  the  crime  charged  against  the  accused. 
Or  else  it  is  a  deliberate  endeavor  to  fasten  the  crime 
upon  a  person  supposed  to  be  innocent,  by  resort 
to  every  method  permissible  in  court.  And  out  of 
this  conflict  arise  the  innumerable  "exceptions" 
without  which  any  criminal  trial  in  this  country 
would,  to  the  average  legal  mind,  be  a  farce  and  an 
incomplete  and  shapeless  performance.  It  is  the 
lawyer  who  is  on  trial,  not  the  defendant:  he  it  is 
who  figures  before  the  public ;  he  who  seeks  to  bring 
himself  forward,  to  become  notorious,  to  advertise 
himself  and  his  extraordinary  ability.  The  trial 
means  much  to  him :  it  may,  if  he  is  successful,  bring 
such  rich  reward  in  the  shape  of  practice  that  he 
cannot  afford  to  lose  a  single  opportunity  of  exhib 
iting  his  skill.  Even  if  the  verdict  goes  against 
him,  he  has  gained  what  is  so  dear  to  his  heart: 


LAW 

notoriety,  advertising  free — his  picture  in  the  pa 
pers,  his  title  of  Napoleon  or  Alexander  or  Demos 
thenes,  and  Heaven  knows  what  else.  He  has  posed 
before  millions  of  readers  as  a  remarkable  jurist — 
for  the  millions  of  readers  do  not  trouble  to  look 
into  the  real  meaning  of  the  words  used  in  the  sen 
sational  scare-heads — and  they  have  their  reward. 
Justice  itself  has  not  been  served;  the  law  has  not 
been  vindicated,  rather  has  it  been  brought  into  yet 
greater  contempt,  but  what  is  that  in  comparison 
with  the  personal  gain  to  the  "able  and  talented 
lawyer"?  Law  and  justice  exist  merely  as  a  means 
to  an  end,  and  that  end  is  the  personal  advantage 
of  the  man  who  makes  his  living  by  pleading. 

Nor  are  the  juries  advantaged.  The  system  of 
trial  by  jury  has  degenerated — almost  into  a  farce. 
It  is  pretty  surely  a  foregone  conclusion  that,  in  a 
case  involving  crime  punishable  by  death,  the  jury 
will  disagree,  and  it  is  also  certain  that  the  jury  will 
tell,  as  soon  as  discharged,  the  reasons  for  its  dis 
agreement — the  apparent  reasons,  for  there  are, 
it  is  said,  in  many  a  case,  occult  reasons  which  could 
not  conveniently  be  stated  to  the  representatives  of 
the  press.  The  best  men,  the  most  intelligent,  the 
most  capable  of  weighing  evidence  and  returning  a 
just  verdict  are  seldom  or  never  to  be  found  in  the 
membership  of  a  jury:  first,  because  the  best  men 
are  averse  to  the  notoriety  and  unpleasantness  of 
jury  service,  to  the  pillorying  which  is  sure  to  fol 
low,  whether  they  condemn  or  acquit,  to  the  certain 
or  nearly  certain  long  imprisonment  they  will  have 
to  endure  while  the  opposing  lawyers  contend  and 

133 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

rage  and  vituperate,  to  the  journalistic  inquisition 
which  invariably  precedes  and  follows  the  trial  and 
the  selection  of  the  jury,  and  secondly,  because  it  is 
not  the  desire  of  the  defense,  in  most  cases,  that  the 
jury  should  be  intelligent  and  able  to  form  a  just 
opinion  of  the  truth  of  the  evidence  placed  before 
it.  The  principle  of  protection  to  the  prisoner  has 
been  applied  in  such  strange  fashion  that  it  has  be 
come  well-nigh  impossible  for  an  ordinarily  intelli 
gent  person  to  be  accepted.  Objections  the  most 
fantastic  are  raised  to  this  man  or  that,  until  finally 
a  collection  is  got  together  which  is  least  likely  to 
render  a  sound  judgment. 

Procrastination  is  the  watchword  of  the  lawyer. 
Every  method  by  which  he  can  postpone  and  delay 
the  administration  of  the  law  it  is  his  business  to  be 
acquainted  with  and  to  apply.  Appeal  follows  ap 
peal,  exception  is  piled  on  exception,  objection 
added  to  objection,  ancient  and  forgotten  statutes 
brought  to  light,  novel  interpretations  insisted  upon 
virulently,  all  with  the  one  object  of  prolonging  the 
fight — which,  of  course  is  highly  profitable  to  the 
lawyer — and  of  winning  the  case  eventually.  The 
Greene  and  Gaynor  suit  is  at  once  recalled  as  in 
point.  The  famous  "Jarndyce  versus  Jarndyce" 
bids  fair  to  be  outclassed  by  this  performance,  in 
which  the  Federal  Government  is  checked  at  every 
point  by  the  skill  and  resourcefulness  of  the  defend 
ing  counsel.  And  the  Trust  cases  are  further  proof 
of  the  system  in  vogue  in  this  country. 

The  practice,  growing  more  widespread  and  more 
pernicious  every  day,  of  the  yellow  press  trying 

134. 


LAW 

the  case  independently,  adds  to  the  contempt  for 
law  so  generally  and  unconsciously  entertained  by 
the  great  bulk  of  the  population.  It  is  no  longer 
left  even  to  the  "Napoleons  of  the  bar"  to  win  the 
laurels  of  subtlety:  the  journalist  seeks  to  anticipate 
them  and  to  seize  the  prize  ere  it  be  fairly  set  up  for 
competition.  The  newspaper,  with  its  corps  of  re 
porters  and  space  writers,  enters  boldly  into  the  field 
and  brings  forward  its  own  evidence,  which  meets 
with  ready  acceptance  from  the  millions  of  readers, 
who  are  pleased  to  be  thus  enabled  to  form  their 
judgment  of  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  accused 
long  ere  the  law  of  the  land  has  started  on  its 
devious  course  of  unraveling  the  truth.  This  un 
questionably  adds  to  the  difficulty  of  discovering  a 
sufficient  number  of  unprejudiced  men  to  try  the 
case,  once  it  reaches  that  stage.  It  is  impossible  for 
most  people  to  avoid  forming  a  fairly  clear  idea  of 
the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  accused,  when  for 
days  the  newspaper  has  been  placing  evidence  for 
and  against  in  the  columns  which  are  headed  with 
sensational  statements  certain  to  attract  attention. 
And  the  fact  of  having  formed  an  opinion,  one  way 
or  the  other,  is  of  course  fatal  to  the  selection  of  a 
juror.  But  that  is  not  of  the  least  importance  to  the 
publisher  of  the  yellow  journal:  what  he  cares  for  is 
to  sell  his  paper,  and  if  in  doing  so  he  runs  contrary 
to  all  the  principles  of  justice  and  equity,  why,  so 
much  the  worse  for  justice  and  equity. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  proof  of  the  contempt  for 
law  which  juries  and  lawyers  exhibit,  with  such 
regularity  and  such  calmness  that  not  many  can  be 

135 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

met  with  who  are  shocked  by  it.  Juries  are  notori 
ously  disinclined  to  convict.  The  clearest  evidence, 
the  most  unchallenged  testimony,  does  not  appear  to 
affect  them.  They  will  acquit  where  crime  has  been 
plainly  proved.  They  will  bring  in  a  verdict  glar 
ingly  in  disaccord  with  the  facts  brought  out.  They 
are  all  powerful  in  this  respect,  and  the  court  is 
helpless,  even  where  the  court  is  determined  to  have 
justice  done.  A  case  in  point,  among  very  many 
which  will  recur  to  anyone  even  cursorily  perusing 
the  accounts  of  the  doings  in  the  law  courts,  will 
suffice.  A  game  warden  came  upon  a  man  breaking 
the  law  by  being  out  shooting  on  a  Sunday.  The 
offender  resisted  arrest  and  deliberately  shot  down 
the  warden,  the  charge  entering  the  man's  chest. 
After  a  long  period  of  illness  the  warden  recovered. 
Meanwhile  the  offender  had  been  arrested  and  a  true 
bill  found  against  him  by  the  grand  jury.  The 
case  came  to  trial;  the  evidence  was  so  clear  that 
not  even  the  subtleties  of  the  lawyer  for  the  defense 
could  cloud  it.  The  man  had  shot  to  kill.  The  jury, 
after  hearing  the  testimony,  deliberated  for  a  couple 
of  hours  and  then  returned  a  verdict  of  "Guilty  of 
simple  assault!"  And  this  occurred  not  in  the 
"wild  and  woolly  West,"  but  in  a  city  of  the  Com 
monwealth  of  Massachusetts,  less  than  an  hour  from 
Boston.  The  judge  was  irritated,  naturally  enough 
at  this  perversion  of  the  jury  system,  and  de 
clared  the  man  ought  to  consider  himself  for 
tunate  that  he  was  not  charged  with  murder.  It 
is  entirely  possible,  however,  that  even  had  he  been 
so  charged,  the  jury  would  have  acquitted  him,  on 

136 


LAW 

the  ground,  perchance,  that  game  laws  ought  to 
have  no  place  in  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home 
of  the  brave. 

When  the  courts  present  such  instances  of  the 
futility  of  appealing  to  justice,  and  enable  the  law 
to  be  set  aside  with  impunity,  it  is  not  to  be  won 
dered  at  that  the  general  public  takes  no  account  of 
the  law.  And  it  does  not,  in  any  form  whatever. 
Traffic  regulations  are  notoriously  disregarded: 
complaints  to  the  effect  are  rife  each  year,  but  they 
produce  no  results,  none  that  are  visible  to  the  im 
partial  observer,  at  all  events.  Each  man  does  as  he 
pleases,  being  a  law  unto  himself.  It  is  sufficient  that 
a  warning  notice  should  be  put  up  by  authority,  for 
bidding  the  doing  of  such  or  such  a  thing,  for  that 
thing  to  be  done  at  once.  In  the  grounds  of  one 
of  the  great  universities  there  are  signs  forbidding 
the  riding  on  bicycles  on  the  paths  and  walks.  The 
signs  are  of  no  use  in  restraining  bicyclists,  who  rush 
by  them  with  the  supreme  contempt  for  authority 
which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  American.  A 
building  law  is  passed  and  is  forthwith  violated,  and 
it  takes  years  of  disputations  in  the  courts  to  en 
force  it.  Orders  are  issued  by  the  municipal  or  the 
police  authorities  intended  to  secure  the  cleanliness 
of  the  streets,  and  they  are  unheeded :  nobody  thinks 
it  worth  his  or  her  while  to  pay  attention  to  such 
matters.  Ordinances,  regulations,  are  merely  safety 
valves  for  the  exuberant  energy  of  some  clerk  or 
other  busybody  and  are  not  intended  to  be  taken 
seriously.  Then  the  Legislature  is  called  upon  to 
frame  a  further  law  compelling  the  enforcement  of 

137 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  existing  law,  and  the  enforcer  of  the  non- 
enforced  becomes  a  non-enforced  in  its  turn. 

Laws  of  all  sorts  abound,  but  observance  of  law 
does  not  grow  in  like  proportion;  rather  does  non- 
observance  flourish.  And  many  of  the  laws  and 
regulations  are  apparently  never  intended  to  be  ob 
served  at  all;  certainly  they  are  ridiculous  in  them 
selves  and  merit  the  disdain  with  which  they  are 
treated.  A  most  respectable  and  intelligent  body  of 
men,  the  Park  Commission  of  Boston,  have  had 
posted  in  every  part  of  the  wide  and  beautiful 
domain  over  which  they  have  control,  rules  and 
regulations  which  are  incredibly  amusing  in  parts, 
as  for  instance  the  prohibition  to  speak  in  a  loud 
voice,  to  whistle  or  to  sing.  It  is  entirely  safe  to 
say  that  not  one  person  in  ten  thousand  has  ever 
looked  at  the  pretty  boards  with  their  green  posters, 
else  the  regulation  would  long  since  have  been  modi 
fied. 

It  is  forbidden,  in  many  cities  and  towns,  to 
offer  for  sale  spirituous  liquors  of  any  kind,  and  the 
temperance  people  are  usually  keen  to  note  infrac 
tions  of  the  law  of  local  option.  But  the  law,  in 
municipalities  of  a  high  standing,  is  calmly  broken 
day  after  day  in  the  very  sight  of  the  authorities 
themselves.  In  more  than  one  Country  Club,  situated 
in  a  no-license  municipality,  there  is  no  concealment 
of  the  fact  that  all  manner  of  liquors  are  sold 
openly  to  members  and  their  guests.  It  is  true  that 
the  face  of  the  municipality  is  saved  by  omitting  the 
word  "Wines"  on  the  bill  and  substituting  for  it  the 
innocuous  "Soda,"  but  the  hypocrisy  of  the  change 

138 


LAW 

of  wording  in  no  wise  diminishes  the  fact.  And  it 
is  even  more  amazing  to  see,  on  certain  occasions 
when  the  general  public  is  admitted  to  the  club 
grounds,  the  entrance  to  the  bar,  plainly  visible  to 
anyone,  protected  by  a  police  constable,  in  the  em 
ploy  of  the  very  municipality  which  is  appointed  to 
administer  the  no-license  law. 

Wherever  the  automobile  has  appeared — and 
where  has  it  not  appeared? — in  the  United  States, 
death  and  wounds  have  accompanied  it.  This,  how 
ever,  is  by  no  means  a  necessary  outcome  of  auto- 
mobilism:  it  is  simply  another  manifestation  of  dis 
regard  of  law,  for  there  is  law,  and  plenty  of  it,  to 
regulate  the  driving  of  these  powerful  machines. 
But  there  is  a  class  of  owners  and  chauffeurs,  a 
large  class  it  is  to  be  feared,  who  apply  in  the 
pursuit  of  their  sport  the  same  indifference  to  the 
law  and  to  the  rights  of  the  public  which  certain 
plutocrats  apply  to  the  conduct  of  their  business. 
To  them  neither  human  life  nor  human  rights  are 
sacred  or  of  the  least  consequence.  They  "own  the 
earth";  they  are  masters;  they  are  rich;  they  are 
above  the  law,  as  were  the  kings  of  France  in  pre- 
revolutionary  days.  Fines  are  of  no  importance  to 
them;  regulations  of  no  account.  Fines  they  pay, 
when  they  are  caught,  and  they  do  not  feel  them; 
regulations  they  rejoice  to  break,  as  they  rejoice  to 
break  the  bones  of  unfortunate  pedestrians.  And 
the  courts  too  often,  when  cases  are  brought  before 
them,  deal  leniently  with  these  rich  offenders,  par 
alyzing  the  efforts  of  the  police  to  restrain  them 
from  further  mischief.  These  things,  which  are 

139 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

done  openly,  bring  law  into  greater  and  greater  con 
tempt.  They  are  the  outcome  of  that  strong  demo 
cratic  spirit,  of  that  perverted  idea  of  independence, 
of  that  false  conception  of  sovereignty  which  per 
vade  the  minds  of  most  Americans.  The  teaching 
of  Rousseau,  albeit  he  is  unknown  by  name  to  the 
great  multitude,  has  sunk  deep  into  the  minds  of  the 
people  on  this  continent.  Yet  Rousseau  himself, 
could  he  observe  the  application  of  his  principles, 
exaggerated  as  they  are,  would  recoil  with  surprise, 
and  perhaps  regret,  the  vehemence  of  his  propaganda. 
The  unlimited  rights  of  the  individual  are  nowhere 
so  ruthlessly  enforced  and  at  the  same  time  nowhere 
so  ruthlessly  trampled  upon,  as  in  the  United  States. 
The  tyranny  of  one  man,  against  which  the  Thirteen 
Colonies  revolted  so  justifiably,  has  been  replaced 
by  the  tyranny  of  many  men  and  many  institutions. 
The  Plutocrat,  the  Trust  President,  the  Railway 
Magnate,  the  Coal  Baron,  the  Ice  Dealer,  the  Auto 
mobile  Fiend  are  a  few  of  the  despots  who  have  re 
placed  the  autocrats  of  the  Old  World  in  this  coun 
try  of  boasted  liberty.  The  people  feel  the  tyranny 
and  cry  out  against  it,  but  they  appear  powerless  to 
check  it,  unable  to  prevent  it,  helpless  to  destroy  it. 
In  another  chapter  the  question  of  the  reckless 
disregard  of  human  life  is  touched  upon.  In  con 
nection  with  this  study  of  the  disregard  of  law,  of 
the  use  made  of  the  technicalities  of  the  law  to  pro 
tect  the  wrong-doer,  so  long  as  he  has  money — that 
is  the  one  great  instrument  of  power  in  the  land — 
it  is  not  out  of  place  to  recall  two  or  three  instances 
particularly  informing. 

140 


LAW 

On  June  15,  1904,  a  New  York  excursion  steamer, 
the  General  Slocumy  licensed  to  carry  twenty-five 
hundred  passengers,  started  on  a  trip  with  thirteen 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  persons  on  board,  the 
greater  number  of  them  women  and  children,  mem 
bers  of  Saint  Mark's  Lutheran  Church,  bound  on 
their  annual  picnic  down  Long  Island  Sound.  The 
day  was  a  lovely  one,  and  the  steamer  sailed  on  with 
its  band  playing,  past  the  wharves  on  the  Xew  York 
side.  Fire  broke  out,  and  one  thousand  and  twenty 
people  lost  their  lives — the  captain,  however,  and 
every  member  of  the  crew  but  one  saving  theirs. 
Five  years  later,  not  one  had  been  punished  for  the 
slaughter  of  innocent  beings ;  president,  secretary, 
directors,  captain  were  equally  safe  from  successful 
prosecution.  It  was  proved  that  the  law  regarding 
the  inspection  of  steamers  had  been  systematically 
violated,  that  the  regulations  requiring  certain  pre 
cautions  to  be  taken  had  been  ignored,  yet  no  con 
sequences  followed  so  far  as  the  responsible  men 
were  concerned.  The  law,  which  should  have  sum 
marily  dealt  with  them,  was  successfully  employed 
to  shield  them. 

A  writer  in  a  magazine,  a  largely  read  one,  said, 
in  December  of  the  same  year:  "Although  the  law 
requires  a  fire  drill  at  least  once  a  week,  with  a  test 
of  the  hose  and  the  lifeboats  on  every  occasion,  the 
Sloe  urn  had  been  sailing  since  the  season  began 
without  putting  water  through  her  hose,  without 
lowering  a  lifeboat,  and  without  having  a  fire  drill  of 
any  kind.  .  .  .  The  law  declares  that  no  hay  shall 
be  carried  on  an  excursion  steamer,  yet  there  were 

141 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

seven  barrels  in  the  Slocum's  storeroom,  all  of 
which  contained  more  or  less  hay,  used  as  a  packing 
for  glassware.  Side  by  side  with  these  stood  three 
barrels  of  oil,  and  scattered  about  the  floor  were 
paint-pots,  scraps  of  canvas,  and  other  bonfire  ma 
terials.  The  door  of  the  room  was  never  locked.  .  .  . 
The  law  requires  that  in  every  compartment  in  a 
steamer's  hold  there  shall  be  a  steam-valve,  so  that 
it  can  be  flooded  with  steam  in  case  of  fire;  but 
there  was  no  steam-valve  in  this  dangerous  store 
room.  ...  A  bill  obtained  by  the  coroner  from 
the  New  York  Belting  and  Packing  Company  showed 
that  Hhe  new  hose'  of  which  the  steamship  company 
had  boasted,  had  been  bought  for  sixteen  cents  a 
foot.  The  cheapest  garden  hose  costs  more.  For 
the  hose  now  in  use  by  the  New  York  Fire  Depart 
ment  a  dollar  and  ten  cents  a  foot  is  paid." 

The  Iroquois  Theater  disaster,  in  Chicago,  cost 
the  lives  of  nearly  seven  hundred  of  the  spectators 
in  that  fire-trap,  but  no  one  has  been  punished  for 
the  crime,  and  the  law  again  was  successfully  turned 
to  account  to  shield  the  responsible. 

But  let  not  the  hearts  of  those  who  love  America 
be  discouraged,  and  let  them  not  be  afraid.  There 
is  a  very  strong  growth  of  sound  public  opinion  on 
this  subject  as  on  many  others  which  affect  the  very 
life  of  the  people.  The  feeling  that  law  is  not  to  be 
used  continually  to  shield  the  rich  and  the  powerful 
is  gaining  greater  vigor  every  day,  and  ere  long  it 
is  certain  to  assert  itself  and  to  bring  about  a  radical 
change  in  the  attitude  of  the  people  themselves. 
Law  will  yet  be  vindicated,  will  yet  be  applied  to  its 


LAW 

proper  purpose:  the  protection  of  the  innocent,  the 
punishment  of  the  wrong-doer.  It  will  not  come  to 
pass  in  a  day:  there  are  too  many  traditions  and 
habits  and  false  views  to  be  corrected,  and,  besides, 
a  sweeping1,  violent  reform  effects  no  lasting  good. 
The  Americans,  in  their  municipal  and  their  national 
politics,  have  time  and  again  indulged  in  spasms  of 
reform.  Tammany  has  been  swept  to  ruin  in  New 
York,  and  Tammany  has  risen  stronger  for  its  tem 
porary  defeat.  It  is  not  the  outburst,  fierce  and 
sharp,  which  determines  an  improvement  in  moral 
conditions ;  it  is  the  steady  education  of  the  people, 
of  all  classes  of  the  people,  and  that  is  going  on, 
quietly,  surely,  in  all  parts  of  the  land.  The  courts 
are  helping:  judges  are  raising  their  voices  and 
speaking  with  all  the  authority  which  their  position 
gives  them ;  the  better  part  of  the  press — and  there 
is  a  large  "better  part" — is  awakening  to  the  serious 
ness  of  its  educational  mission  and  uttering  words 
of  warning  that  fall  on  no  unheeding  ears ;  the  pul 
pit,  although  a  comparatively  weak  power,  is  aiming 
to  stir  the  minds  of  citizens  to  sober  reflection;  the 
great  educational  institutions  are  aiding  in  the  good 
work,  and  more  than  all  the  sterling  sound  sense  of 
the  American  race  is  being  roused  to  action,  to  firm 
and  inflexible  action.  Men  are  waking  to  their  re 
sponsibilities  and  duties,  are  realizing  that  they  are 
not  merely  in  the  places  they  occupy  to  enrich  them 
selves,  but  are  trustees  for  the  fair  name  of  their 
country  and  are  charged  to  assist  in  bringing  or 
der  out  of  the  chaos  of  "graft"  and  corruption,  which 
breeds  the  evils  that  are  so  patent  and  glaring.  He 

148 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

who  believes  that  the  situation  is  a  hopeless  one, 
and  that  the  democratic  principle  is  incapable  of 
coping  with  the  mighty  forces  of  evil  at  work,  is 
short-sighted  and  himself  unable  to  perceive  the 
working  of  the  national  mind.  There  is  absolutely 
no  doubt  of  the  capacity  of  the  American  people  to 
vindicate  the  excellence  of  democracy;  no  doubt,  if 
one  studies  closely  the  movement  of  thought,  and 
its  expression  through  channels  that  are  becoming 
more  numerous  every  day. 

The  very  fact  that  press  and  bench  unite  in  urg 
ing  improvement  and  reform,  that  the  demagogue 
himself,  rising  to  a  higher  conception  of  his  duty, 
proclaims  the  existence  of  evil  and  calls  it  evil  in 
plain  and  unmistakable  language,  assures  the  much 
to  be  desired  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  public. 
"One  cause  for  this  deplorable  condition," — the  in 
crease  of  lawlessness — declares  a  leading  newspaper 
of  the  West,  "is  the  dull  indifference  of  the  people. 
They  do  not  insist  that  the  laws  be  enforced.  .  .  . 
Another  cause  is  to  be  found  in  our  extremely  low 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  State.  We  look  on 
it  as  an  agency  which,  if  not  closely  limited,  will  be 
used  for  preventing  us  from  doing  what  we  wish  to 
do,  and  not  as  the  embodiment  of  the  law  made  by 
all  and  for  all.  So,  when  it  intervenes  to  enforce  the 
law,  we  hold  the  intervention  to  be  against  us,  and 
not  in  behalf  of  the  law.  Is  not  this  the  mental 
attitude  of  most  of  us?  .  .  .  We  try  to  use  it,  not 
for  all  of  us,  but  for  some  of  us."  "We  have 
grown,"  says  a  Southern  paper,  "so  accustomed  to 
the  failure  of  justice  in  cases  where  human  life  is 

144 


LAW 

taken  by  violence  that  we  excuse  one  failure  and  an 
other  until  it  will  become  a  habit,  and  the  strong 
shall  prevail  over  the  weak,  and  the  man  who  slays 
his  brother  shall  be  regarded  as  the  incarnation  of 
power." 

The  judges  are  equally  insistent  and  outspoken: 
"Justice  delayed,"  has  said  Justice  Brewer,  "is  often 
justice  denied,"  and  developing  that  text  he  shows 
that  appeals  on  technicalities  and  the  resultant  de 
lays  tend  to  pervert  justice,  not  to  assure  it,  and 
that  in  consequence  criminals  become  bolder  and 
crime  more  frequent.  A  Chief  Justice  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  Delaware  is  just  as  explicit:  "Law 
lessness  pervades  the  land.  .  .  .  Gigantic  frauds  are 
palmed  upon  the  people  as  successful  business  enter 
prises.  Our  greatest  financiers  are  racking  their 
brains  to  circumvent  the  law  and  the  people,  and 
by  lawlessness  achieve  wealth,  being  careful  only  to 
keep  outside  of  actual  violence  and  the  common 
jail.  When  their  cunning  evasions  of  the  law 
are  crowned  with  success  all  men  are  tempted  to 
lawlessness." 

And  Mr.  Bryan,  speaking  to  an  assembly  of  law 
yers  in  Chicago,  at  once  gave  expression  to  hope 
and  to  sorrow:  "I  believe  that  the  day  will  come 
in  this  country  when  we  will  not  have  so  many  men 
who  sell  their  souls  to  make  grand  larceny  possible. 
Perhaps  sometime  it  will  not  be  less  disgraceful  for 
a  lawyer  to  assist  in  a  gigantic  robbery  than  for  a 
highwayman  to  hold  up  and  shoot  the  wayfarer.  I 
know  of  a  case  recently  in  which  they  had  to  go  to 
New  York  to  get  lawyers  to  represent  the  people  be- 

145 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

cause  all  the  lawyers  available  nearer  at  hand  had 
been  bought  up." 

The  first  requisite  for  healing  a  disease — and  law 
lessness  is  a  mortal  one — is  recognition  of  its  exist 
ence.  Naturally  people  are  indisposed  to  confess  the 
failure,  whether  temporary  or  permanent,  of  a  sys 
tem  in  which  they  believe  and  unceasingly  proclaim 
superior  to  all  other  forms  hitherto  known;  but  un 
less  they  are  willing  to  face  the  situation  as  it  really 
exists,  unless  they  are  ready  to  probe  mercilessly 
the  plague  spots  in  their  administration  and  in  their 
national  life,  that  life  cannot  be  healthy,  that  disease 
cannot  be  stayed  and  cured.  The  remedy  lies  close 
to  the  hand;  it  requires  only  to  be  applied,  but  first 
and  foremost  the  mind  of  the  nation  must  be  edu 
cated  to  perceive  and  to  hate  the  evil ;  the  false  ideas 
of  personal  independence,  carried  to  the  worst  ex 
tremes,  must  be  shown  to  be  utterly  and  glaringly 
wrong;  the  truth  that  men  are  united  together  in 
a  commonwealth,  not  for  individual  purposes  of  self- 
aggrandisement  or  self-interest,  but  for  mutual  aid 
and  protection,  must  first  be  instilled  deep  in  the 
hearts  of  all  the  citizens,  or  at  least  of  so  large  and 
influential  a  number  of  them  that  they  shall  swing 
the  opinions  of  the  remainder.  This  is  being  done; 
the  process  of  education  is  going  on  steadily  day 
by  day  and  in  every  part  of  the  land ;  public  opinion, 
weak  as  yet  in  most  respects,  is  beginning  to  make 
itself  heard,  and  it  will  be  listened  to  ere  many  years 
be  past.  Men  are  learning  what  would  seem  to  be  a 
truism,  that  the  law  is  not  for  the  rich  alone  but  for 
all,  no  matter  what  their  worldly  circumstances  ;  that 

146 


LAW 

it  is  in  its  essence  a  protection  and  not  an  instru 
ment  of  coercion  on  the  one  hand  or  of  evasion  of 
duty  on  the  other.  In  a  democracy  it  is  education 
which  is  the  prime  requisite,  and  education  means  not 
alone  that  mental  training  and  that  exercise  of  the 
memory  which  form  the  main  purpose  of  the  elemen 
tary  schools,  but  that  clear  understanding  of  the 
duty  of  the  citizen  toward  the  State,  of  the  individual 
toward  the  community,  of  one  man  toward  his  neigh 
bor. 

The  United  States  started  on  its  national  life 
with  advantages  that  no  other  nation  on  earth  ever 
possessed ;  it  was  founded  by  men  practiced  in 
the  knowledge  and  love  of  liberty,  trained  in  the 
principles  of  common  weal;  it  was  established  by 
a  race  which  possessed  the  highest  form  of  civiliza 
tion  then  known  on  earth,  a  civilization  which  has 
developed  greatly  since;  it  was  free  from  the 
trammels  of  long-established  institutions  and  deep- 
rooted  traditions;  it  was  in  a  position  to  face  the 
problems  of  community  and  national  life  without  the 
complications  introduced  into  them  by  the  slow  evo 
lution  Europe  had  to  pass  through  in  emerging  from 
the  condition  of  the  Middle  Ages  into  the  freer  at 
mosphere  of  modern  times.  And  to  suppose,  even 
for  the  briefest  instant,  that  a  nation  thus  favored 
at  its  very  outset,  that  a  nation  which  has  already 
given  repeated  proofs  of  its  singular  capacity  for 
self-government  and  self-improvement ;  that  a  people 
which  has  produced  so  many  men  of  the  highest  type 
of  moral  elevation  and  strength,  can  possibly  fail  to 
throw  off  utterly  and  forever  the  evils  which  afflict 

147 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

it  as  an  immediate  result  of  the  startling  and  rapid 
growth  of  its  wealth,  individual  and  national;  to  as 
sert,  to  believe  such  a  proposition,  is  to  mark  oneself 
incapable  of  apprehending  plain  truth,  of  seizing 
facts  and  of  understanding  that  the  grievous 
faults  are  but  transitory  and  that  the  nation  is 
sound  at  heart. 

No ;  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  ultimate  out 
come.  The  American  is  not  corrupt  in  himself;  he 
is  not  in  favor  of  evil  in  national  or  private  life. 
The  splurge  of  the  nouveau  riche,  the  insolence  of 
the  magnate,  the  cruelty  and  indifference  to  suffer 
ing  of  the  plutocrat,  the  brazen  twisting  of  the  tech 
nicalities  of  the  law  to  serve  private  purposes,  are 
not  essential  elements  of  the  American  character. 
No  one  who  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  live  among 
this  people — not  merely  to  rush  through  the  land — 
no  one  who  has  had  the  opportunity  of  mingling  with 
the  business  and  the  professional  men,  of  talking 
with  the  better  class  of  politicians,  of  meeting  states 
men,  of  conversing  with  thinkers  and  makers  of 
opinion,  no  one  who  has  seen  and  studied  the  Amer 
ican  at  close  quarters  unaware  that  he  was  being 
observed,  can  by  any  stretch  of  possibility  form  any 
other  conclusion  than  that  the  voices  now  heard  so 
often  and  so  loudly  in  their  call  for  reform  and 
improvement  will  not  die  away  unheeded.  The  na 
tion  is  a  mighty  one  now;  it  will  be  mightier  yet. 
"Great  hast  Thou  made  us ;  make  us  greater  yet," 
may  as  truly  be  said  by  the  American  as  by  the 
Briton.  The  same  profound  love  of  the  pure  in 
national  and  private  life  is  characteristic  of  the  one 

148 


LAW 

as  of  the  other;  the  same  resolution  to  abide  by  high 
ideals ;  the  same  determination  not  to  lose  all  that 
the  forefathers  have  won,  but  to  add  to  it;  the  same 
sense  of  honor ;  the  same  fearless  courage  in  the 
discharge  of  duty.  These  noble  qualities  have  been 
obscured  for  a  time,  are  obscured  even  now,  no 
doubt,  but  that  they  have  disappeared,  that  the 
lust  of  gold,  the  rage  for  display,  the  mania  for 
speedy  wealth,  the  hunger  for  unbridled  power  have 
utterly  destroyed  them,  no  man  in  his  senses  can 
believe  for  a  moment.  The  tremendous  development 
of  the  material  side  of  civilization  in  this  land,  the 
unequaled  growth  of  riches,  the  stupendous  forward 
rush  have  brought  in  their  turn  loathsome  evils,  but 
the  body  politic  is  sound,  the  stock  is  true,  and  the 
change,  the  reaction,  are  clearly  apparent  to  him 
who  cares  to  look  somewhat  closely  and  who  is  not 
to  be  deceived  by  the  boiling  up  of  the  scum,  by  the 
frothing  and  the  seething  of  the  lees  and  the  dregs 
that  come  to  the  surface  in  times  such  as  the  Great 
Republic  has  known  and  is  experiencing.  The  clear 
wine  is  there,  and  when  the  ebullition  dies  down, 
when  time  has  told  upon  the  society  that  now  fer 
ments  and  seethes  and  bubbles,  the  rich  and  healthy 
life  will  be  apparent  to  all. 

Here  again  reflection  forces  one  to  look  at  home 
after  having  considered  the  condition  of  things  on 
the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  The  question  whether 
we  British  can  afford  to  look  down  upon  American 
disregard  of  law  and  to  thank  God  that  we  are  not 
as  these  shameless  Yankees,  is  not  one  we  care  to 
face  too  quickly.  For  we  know  the  answer  would  be 

149 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

against  our  claim — long  just — of  being  a  law-abid 
ing  people. 

Woman  has  shown  us  how  utterly  law  may  be  set 
at  naught  with  comparative  and  in  many  cases,  ab 
solute  immunity.  Governments  have  taught  the  na 
tion  that  illegality  may  be  a  positive  help  to  a  shaky 
Cabinet.  With  us,  as  with  Americans,  is  growing  a 
feeling  that  if  only  more  laws  are  made,  careless 
whether  they  be  thought  out  first,  improvement  of 
social  conditions  is  sure  to  result.  We  are  not  yet 
as  foolish  in  this  respect  as  our  friends  oversea,  nor 
quite  as  heedless  of  the  maintenance  of  law  as  they 
are,  but  we  are  a  fair  second  and  it  may  be  that  while 
they  are  emerging  from  the  chaos  they  have  created, 
we,  on  the  other  hand,  may  travel  farther  along  the 
path  they  are  forsaking. 


X 

MARRIAGE 

It  is  customary  to  speak  of  the  Americans  as  an 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  while  it  is  true  that  as  regards 
the  original  American  stock  they  are  Anglo-Saxon, 
it  is  at  least  open  to  question  whether,  with  the 
continual  introduction  of  foreign  blood  of  various 
strains  it  is  accurate  to  speak  of  the  present  ninety 
millions  of  Americans  as  pertaining  to  that  par 
ticular  race.  Temperamentally  they  are  nearer  to 
the  Gallic:  like  the  French  the  Americans  are  easily 
swayed  by  emotion  and  feeling;  like  the  French  they 
are  willingly  moved  by  oratory  and  sentiment ;  like 
the  French  they  love  fine  phrases  and  high-sounding 
words.  At  the  same  time  they  possess  that  fund  of 
common  sense  and  that  power  of  recovering  their 
balance  which  is  generally  considered  an  attribute 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  They  "go  off  the  handle"  very 
quickly,  but  they  regain  their  self-control  in  a  brief 
time.  They  allow  themselves  to  be  carried  away  by 
enthusiasm  or  anger,  but  they  are  apt  to  reflect,  and 
seriously,  before  translating  their  emotion  into  ac 
tion. 

Among  the  phrases  which  they  repeat  with  much 
unction,  and  with  entire  conviction  and  sincerity, 

151 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

"the  sanctity  of  the  home"  is  a  favorite.  But  one 
wonders,  after  a  prolonged  residence  in  the  country, 
whether  the  meaning  attached  to  these  words  is 
quite  that  in  which  they  are  taken  by  ordinary  mor 
tals  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  "The  sanctity  of 
the  home"  has  a  fine  ring  to  it,  and  may  be  counted 
on  in  a  trial  to  win  acquittal  for  the  accused,  if 
he  has,  for  instance,  slain  a  man  for  an  alleged 
outrage.  A  case  in  very  recent  years  is  in  point:  a 
girl  claimed  to  have  been  insulted  by  the  man  with 
whom  she  had  gone  driving  alone,  and  with  whom  she 
drank  whiskey — a  proceeding  which  appears  curious 
in  a  young  person  of  her  sex.  She  related  the  story 
to  her  father,  who  promptly  loaded  a  gun  and  shot 
down  the  man,  without  giving  him  the  smallest  oppor 
tunity  of  meeting  the  charge,  save  that  of  buckshot 
which  deprived  him  of  life.  The  jury,  with  equal 
promptitude,  acquitted  the  father,  because  he  had 
vindicated  the  sanctity  of  the  home.  One  cannot  but 
wonder  what  kind  of  sanctity  that  is,  and  further 
wonder  is  excited  by  the  fact  that  human  life  is  held 
so  cheap  that  any  person,  believing  himself  offended, 
may  go  out  and  kill  at  sight  the  presumed  offender. 
Here  again  the  spirit  of  independence  asserts  it 
self;  the  children  claim  and  enjoy  the  freedom  of 
action  which  is  amazing  to  the  European.  It  often 
turns  out  all  right,  but  it  often  turns  out  all  wrong. 
The  home,  in  the  sense  in  which  that  word  is  used 
even  now  in  Europe,  does  not  really  exist  in  the 
United  States,  or  exists  only  in  the  form  of  excep 
tion.  This  does  not  mean  that  "home"  is  a  thing 
unknown;  far  from  it;  only  the  conception  of  the 


MARRIAGE 

home  and  of  the  relations  between  the  members  of 
the  family  is  different.  It  suits  the  people,  and  so 
long  as  that  is  the  case,  they  have  a  perfect  right 
to  prefer  their  interpretation  to  that  which  obtains 
in  the  Old  World.  Only  the  sanctity  remains  rather 
vague  and  indefinite.  It  is  a  mere  formula,  in  most 
cases,  skilfully  invoked  by  a  clever  pleader  whose 
business  is  to  save  his  client  even  at  the  cost  of 
truth  and  morality  and  justice. 

This  is  recognized  by  the  better  part  of  the  press 
and  by  the  more  thoughtful  among  the  public.  The 
particular  case  just  cited  called  forth  at  once  the 
following  sound  remarks,  among  many  other  com 
ments  of  a  similar  nature,  a  proof  that  the  com 
munity,  that  is,  the  thinking  portion,  clearly  feels 
the  evils  and  dangers  of  empty  words  and  phrases, 
of  lawlessness  and  lynch  law: 

"The  acquittal  of  former  Judge  in  Vir 
ginia  for  shooting  down  in  hot  blood  a  young  man 
whom  his  daughter  accused  of  'drugging'  and  mal 
treating  her  suggests  the  need  of  an  amendment  to 
the  criminal  code  of  that  state. 

"The  presiding  judge  in  this  case  refused  to  admit 
testimony  as  to  the  truth  of  the  story  which  the 
girl  told  to  her  father,  citing  as  a  precedent  a 
similar  ruling  in  the  Thaw  case  in  New  York.  The 
prosecution  in  Virginia  offered  to  prove  that  the 
offense  charged  did  not  occur,  and  though  this  was 
not  permitted,  the  jury  unofficially  decided  from 
the  testimony  of  the  young  woman  herself  and  other 
circumstances  that  were  brought  out  that  no  as 
sault  was  actually  made.  The  acquittal  was  osten- 

153 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

sibly  given  on  the  ground  of  temporary  insanity, 
though  the  plea  for  the  defense  was  based  almost 
wholly  upon  the  'unwritten  law,'  which  warrants 
every  Virginia  gentleman — and,  of  course,  all  native 
white  Virginians  are  gentlemen — to  avenge  in  blood, 
insults  or  injuries  to  the  women  of  his  family. 

"As  this  is  the  second  acquittal  of  a  man-slayer 
in  Virginia  upon  this  ground  within  a  few  months, 
we  submit  that,  as  the  'unwritten  law'  is  a  return  to 
barbarism  and  anarchy,  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
put  upon  its  statute  book  the  law  upheld  by  public 
opinion  and  sanctioned  in  the  courts — in  these 
terms  : 

"Be  it  enacted,  that  any  white  male  citizen  of  Vir 
ginia  is  hereby  authorized  to  kill  upon  sight,  without 
opportunity  for  denial  or  defense,  any  man  whom  he 
has  been  told  or  has  reason  to  suspect  has  seduced 
or  insulted  any  female  relative  or  connection  of  his ; 
and  this  without  reference  to  the  truth  or  falsity  of 
the  charge  or  the  grounds  of  the  suspicion. 

"Such  a  law  would  tend  to  relieve  the  criminal 
code  in  Virginia,  or  other  state  where  this  'unwritten 
law  of  honor'  prevails,  of  the  contempt  put  upon 
it  by  such  verdicts  as  this.  It  would  likewise  save 
the  State  much  needless  expense,  and  avoid  the  de 
moralizing  effect  of  such  farcical  trials.  In,  a 
'government  of  laws,  not  of  men,'  all  laws  should  be 
enacted,  written,  and  observed  or  enforced." 

The  foundation  of  the  home,  in  European  society, 
is  marriage,  with  all  its  responsibilities,  with  its  privi 
leges,  with  its  duties,  with  its  joys.  Marriage,  there 
fore,  is  safeguarded  to  a  greater  extent  in  the  Old 

154 


MARRIAGE 

World  than  in  the  New.  In  the  latter,  indeed,  it  is 
not  looked  upon  as  unalterably  binding,  nor  can  it 
be  so  in  a  land  where  the  principle  of  personal  in 
dependence  is  so  strongly  rooted  and  acts  with  such 
power  upon  the  inhabitants.  Why  should  there  be 
any  binding  of  the  individual  in  the  case  of  mar 
riage  any  more  than  In  the  case  of  any  other  con 
tract  which  may  be  terminated  at  the  pleasure  of 
one  or  both  the  parties  to  it?  In  very  many  cases, 
therefore,  marriage  ceases  to  be  the  solemn  engage 
ment  for  life  which  it  has  always  been  held  to  be  in 
Europe.  It  is  degraded,  in  innumerable  cases,  into 
a  ready  means  of  satisfying  a  passing  caprice,  an 
ephemeral  passion,  and  once  satiety  has  made  itself 
felt,  nothing  is  easier  or  more  readily  resorted  to 
than  divorce. 

The  seriousness  of  the  tie  is  by  very  many  not 
recognized  or  acted  upon.  It  is  a  provisional  com 
pact.  It  is  entered  into  in  haste  and  emerged  from 
more  hastily  still.  The  safeguards  are  in  more  than 
one  State  quite  inadequate;  minors  are  able  to  ob 
tain  the  services  of  parson  or  magistrate  with  little 
or  no  difficulty ;  licenses  are  got  without  much  trou 
ble,  and  matches  made  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
Married  in  one  State,  the  parties  can  go  into  an 
other  and  obtain  the  coveted  dissolution  of  the  bonds 
which  sit  so  lightly  on  them.  One  of  the  parties  may 
obtain  the  judgment  without  the  other  having  the 
chance  to  contest.  The  divorce  mill  grinds  exceed 
ingly  fast,  and  with  much  profit  to  those  in  charge 
of  it. 

And  divorce  becomes  a  necessity,  an  inevitable 
155 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

consequence  of  the  laxness  of  the  celebration  of  mar 
riages,  and  of  the  fatal  facility  with  which  men  and 
women  enter  the  state  of  matrimony.  Not  long 
since  a  young  woman  who  had  been  married  to  a 
fascinating  individual  pretending  to  high  station  in 
life,  discovered,  within  less  than  a  week,  that  she 
was  the  second  wife,  the  first  being  undivorced  even. 
On  examination,  it  came  out  that  she  had  met  her 
gay  Lothario  one  day,  had  dined  with  him  the  next, 
and  had  been  married  to  him,  with  her  mother's  con 
sent,  the  following  morning.  Marriage  thus  lightly 
entered  into  ceases  to  be  marriage. 

The  pulpit  and  the  better  part  of  the  press  de 
plore  this  condition  of  affairs.  They  call  for 
stronger  and  more  efficient  marriage  laws,  for  uni 
form  divorce  laws,  for  the  prohibition  of  the  re 
marriage  of  the  guilty  party,  during  a  certain  period 
at  least,  but  they  appear  to  make  scarcely  any 
headway — if  any.  Men  and  women  have  no  hesi 
tation  in  announcing  that  they  are  merely  waiting 
for  the  one  or  the  other  to  be  freed  from  his  or  her 
present  bonds  in  order  to  wed  anew  and  elsewhere. 
And  the  sorry  spectacle  is  presented  of  a  wedding 
breakfast  at  which  everyone  present  has  been 
divorced  at  least  once,  while  several  have  repeated 
and  triplicated  the  performance. 

How  can  a  home  be  consecrated  while  such  prac 
tices  endure  and  are  not  only  tolerated  but  encour 
aged  by  the  facility  with  which,  first,  so-called  mar 
riage  and,  next,  divorce  can  be  obtained?  What 
conception  of  the  sanctity  of  the  family  can  be  had 
by  children  who  have  seen  a  succession  of  fathers  or 

156 


MARRIAGE 

a  series  of  mothers  rule  over  them?  The  fact  that 
the  immediate  satisfaction  of  a  desire,  a  whim,  is 
within  the  reach  of  all  who  care  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  means  ready  to  their  hand,  cannot  surely  in 
still  in  the  minds  of  the  youths  and  the  maidens 
any  particular  respect  for  an  institution  which  de 
rives  its  chief  claim  to  veneration  from  the  fact 
that  it  is  or  ought  to  be  a  union  of  hearts  and  souls 
and  not  simply  a  pandering  to  sensual  appetites. 

It  may  be  urged  that  there  are  thousands  on 
thousands  of  decent  families  in  the  United  States  the 
members  of  which  would  shudder  at  the  thought  of 
recourse  to  the  divorce  court,  and  this  is  happily 
perfectly  true,  but  there  are  also  innumerable  in 
stances  of  the  scandalous  facility  with  which  mar 
riage  is  set  at  naught  and  the  family  disrupted. 
The  important  point  is  that  divorce  does  not  of  it 
self  inflict  a  stigma;  people  are  received  in  decent 
society  even  after  they  have  proved  themselves  in 
capable  of  keeping  the  pledges  freely  given  by  them. 
Men  who  have  deserved  the  adverse  decree  obtained 
against  them  are  none  the  less  considered  fit  and 
proper  persons  for  admission  to  homes  where  virtue 
reigns  and  where  the  decencies  are  observed.  For 
in  the  land  of  publicity  it  is  not  possible  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  such  and  such  persons  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  facilities  at  the  disposal  of  the 
rich  for  the  purpose  of  severing  the  marital  tie. 

There  is  always  the  danger,  in  speaking  or  writ 
ing  on  questions  affecting  the  manners  of  a  nation, 
of  being  misunderstood,  and  there  is  the  almost  cer 
tainty  of  motives  being  attributed  to  the  critic.  It 

157 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

is  easy  to  charge  him  with  precipitate  judgment,  with 
unjustifiable  conclusions,  with  exaggeration ;  it  is 
easy  to  urge  that  he  selects  certain  cases  and  gen 
eralizes  from  them;  but  assuredly  no  one  acquainted 
with  daily  life  in  the  United  States  can  deny  that 
the  indictment,  if  so  harsh  a  term  may  be  used,  is, 
in  respect  to  the  too  general  disregard  of  the  sanc 
tity  of  the  marriage  tie,  in  any  degree  overdrawn. 
The  fulminations  of  church  assemblies,  the  denuncia 
tions  of  the  higher  order  of  newspapers,  the  caustic 
reproaches  so  often  spoken  by  public  orators,  all 
concur  in  proving  that  the  view  here  taken  is  not  an 
unfair  one,  and  that  the  danger,  for  danger  it  is, 
does  threaten  the  very  springs  of  family  life  and 
family  honor. 

Even  as  a  small  lump  of  leaven  leaveneth  the 
whole  lump,  so  may  a  small  amount  of  poison  destroy 
the  virtue  of  a  society.  The  levity  with  which  mar 
riage  is  too  frequently  entered  into,  the  readiness, 
eagerness,  nay,  haste,  with  which  recourse  is  there 
after  had  to  the  Divorce  Court,  are  two  points  on 
which  the  attention  of  the  observer,  especially  of  the 
sympathetic  observer,  cannot  fail  to  dwell.  Were 
one  secretly  or  openly  a  hater  of  the  democracy  of 
the  United  States,  this  evil  is  precisely  one  on  which 
no  stress  would  be  laid,  as  it  can  safely  be  depended 
upon  to  work  incredible  harm  to  the  national  mor 
als.  But  for  anyone  interested  in  and  proud  of 
the  wonderful  progress  of  the  country,  seeing  in 
it  the  gage  of  eventual  development  of  a  power 
destined  to  be  most  beneficent  to  humanity  at  large, 
for  any  such  person  to  refrain  from  speaking  out 

158 


MARRIAGE 

on  the  subject  were  worse  than  cowardice.  It  is 
not  by  merely  flattering  a  people  that  it  can  be 
brought  to  a  realizing  sense  of  its  imperfections  and 
of  the  need  of  pruning  and  cutting.  All  truths 
should  not  perhaps  be  uttered,  but  some  truths  must 
be  spoken  at  any  cost,  and  those  which  affect  the 
deepest  well-being  of  a  race  are  among  the  latter. 

What  is  the  reason  of  the  prevalence  of  hasty 
marriages,  or  ill-considered  matches,  and  of  the  in 
numerable  divorces  which  bring  shame  to  the  public 
conscience? 

There  are  two  or  three  reasons,  and  the  first,  the 
most  evident,  is  the  working  of  the  democratic  prin 
ciple;  the  influence  of  individualism  and  a  totally 
erroneous  application  of  the  idea  of  liberty,  degener 
ating  into  lawlessness,  are  two  others. 

The  democratic  principle,  as  has  been  shown  al 
ready,  tends  to  develop  both  individualism,  which 
speedily  is  carried  to  the  extremest  length  of  worst 
egotism,  and  lawlessness.  It  may  thus  be  said  that 
the  first  reason  contains  the  other  two.  If  it  be 
clearly  and  thoroughly  understood  that  the  Amer 
ican  looks  upon  democracy  in  a  way  vastly  dif 
ferent  from  Europeans ;  and  that  he  carries  out  the 
idea  on  which  it  is  based  to  its  logical  limit,  the 
peculiar  state  of  mind  of  the  devotees  of  marriage 
followed  by  divorce  will  be  more  readily  under 
stood.  The  democratic  principle  leads  men  to  de 
sire  to  do  what  they  themselves  please,  regardless  of 
its  effect  upon  those  around  them.  That  is  egotism, 
individualism  run  mad,  but  such  is  the  actual  state 
of  the  case.  Men  and  women  alike  do  not  recognize, 

159 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

do  not  admit,  in  practice,  any  limitation  of  their 
individual  rights.  Here  again  the  critic  may  not 
improbably  be  accused  of  exaggeration,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  study  the  American  people  in  their 
daily  life,  it  is  impossible  to  hear  their  expressions 
of  opinion,  to  observe  their  application  of  these 
views  of  life  to  life  itself,  without  coming  to  this 
conclusion,  a  little  sooner  or  a  little  later,  but  in 
fallibly. 

Now,  so  long  as  selfishness,  unsuspected  or  open, 
is  a  mainspring  of  action,  it  follows  that  nothing 
will  be  held  sacred  which  interferes  in  the  smallest 
degree  with  the  complete  satisfaction  of  personal 
aspirations  and  desires.  Individualism,  as  practiced 
and  taught,  leads  directly  to  the  propagation  and 
encouragement  of  egotism.  The  average  man  and 
average  woman  are  trained,  as  a  rule  unconsciously, 
to  seek  to  have  their  own  way.  Personal  success  is 
the  thing  men  aim  at ;  it  is  the  goal  of  their  aspira 
tions  and  their  hopes.  They  intend  to  "get  there," 
as  they  themselves  express  it,  and  getting  there, 
somehow,  is  a  process  destructive  of  all  consideration 
for  others.  Indeed,  the  others  are  either  obstacles 
to  be  overcome  or  thrown  aside  or  possible  aids  to  be 
made  use  of.  They  are  not  perceived  to  have  any 
claims  to  consideration;  that  is  probably  the  last 
thought  which  would  enter  the  mind  of  the  hustler. 
The  weak  go  to  the  wall,  fatally ;  the  strong  and  the 
unscrupulous  alone  push  to  the  front. 

In  business  as  in  politics,  the  primary  object  is 
success  in  the  aims  set  before  himself  by  the  man 
who  starts  out  to  conquer  his  place  in  the  world. 

160 


MARRIAGE 

To  that  everything  else  must  yield:  morality  itself, 
if  it  happens  to  get  in  the  way,  as  it  has  a  habit  of 
doing.  So  in  the  relations  between  the  sexes,  the 
individualistic  tendency  becomes  at  once  manifest. 

The  deeper  and  truer  conception  of  the  marriage 
tie  is  that  each  party  to  it  is  prepared  and  willing 
to  sacrifice  personal  preferences  for  the  sake  of  the 
other;  that  it  is  no  longer  a  separate  but  a  united 
aim  which  is  pursued;  that  mutual  support  and  mu 
tual  encouragement  are  the  immediate  gain  ob 
tained  ;  that  burdens  are  diminished  by  being  shared 
and  joys  increased  by  the  happiness  they  bring  the 
other;  that  it  is  impossible  to  see  always  with  a 
single  eye,  but  that  it  is  possible  and  delightful  to 
learn  how  to  look  with  the  other's  eyes ;  that  differ 
ences  are  certain  to  arise,  seeing  men  are  mortal  and 
necessarily  faulty,  but  that  differences  can  be  ad 
justed  and  smoothed  over  without  contention  and 
separation. 

This  view,  however,  is  not  that  apt  to  be  taken 
by  the  individualist,  and  the  ordinary  training  be 
stowed  upon  the  American  child  is  not  of  a  sort 
to  foster  unselfishness  and  abnegation.  Given  the 
early  education  and  the  atmosphere  in  which  young 
men  and  young  women  live;  the  facility  with  which 
they  learn  of  the  various  "society"  scandals;  the 
leniency  with  which  divorce  is  looked  upon  as  a  rule ; 
the  habit  of  having  their  own  way  and  the  general 
tendency  of  the  greater  majority  of  those  who  sur 
round  them  to  act  for  their  own  benefit  regardless  of 
others,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  sense  of  duty 
should  be  little  cultivated,  that  the  need  of  careful 

161 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

consideration  before  entering  upon  the  marriage 
state  should  be  lost  sight  of,  and  that  alliances 
should  be  contracted  with  a  heedlessness  that  is  well- 
nigh  criminal. 

The  Church,  divided  as  it  is  into  many  com 
munions,  has  at  least  to  its  credit  that  officially  it 
opposes  the  current  of  popular  indifference  to  the 
evil  of  divorce,  obtained  without  difficulty,  and  dis 
pensed  with  lavish  hand  by  courts.  But  here  again 
there  is  a  weakness  in  the  position  of  the  ecclesiastics 
which  is  not  without  influence  upon  people  desirous 
of  breaking  loose  from  a  contract  usually  looked 
upon  as  binding  for  life.  Individual  clergymen  are 
always  to  be  found  who,  for  some  consideration  or 
other,  will  remarry  divorced  persons.  A  very  re 
cent  case  created  much  scandal  on  this  account. 
The  pair  who  sought  to  be  united  with  "the  blessing 
of  the  Church"  did  not  fail  in  their  purpose:  the 
groom  was  enormously  wealthy  and  the  proffered  fee 
was  a  fat  one.  It  was  not  a  case  in  which  the 
clergyman  could  possibly  plead  ignorance  of  the 
facts,  for  they  had  been  blazed  abroad  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land;  it  was  simply 
an  instance  of  that  lack  of  principle  which  is  too 
often  exhibited  in  this  connection  by  men  whose 
profession  leads  the  ordinary  layman  to  expect  that 
they  shall  stand  up  for  principle  instead  of  being 
influenced  by  money  and  patronage. 

The  assemblies  of  the  various  ecclesiastical  bodies 
are  in  the  habit  of  denouncing  the  loose  notions  en 
tertained  of  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  tie,  and 
the  consequent  resort  to  divorce.  They  pass  resolu- 

162 


MARRIAGE 

tions  of  the  very  strongest  and  most  uncompromis 
ing  character,  but  these  fail  to  reach  the  root  of  the 
evil,  and  fail  all  the  more  badly  because  of  the  weak- 
kneed  among  the  parsons.  It  is  not  by  means  of 
canons  and  votes  that  the  harm  done  by  the  spread 
of  divorce  will  be  stayed  or  cured;  it  is  not  by  the 
preaching  of  sermons,  however  eloquent,  that  the 
tide  of  demoralization  will  be  kept  back.  These 
things,  very  good  in  themselves,  fail  utterly  to  strike 
the  cause,  and  so  long  as  the  cause  is  untouched,  so 
long,  logically,  will  the  harm  continue. 

The  sanctity  of  the  home  can  be  maintained  and 
defended  not  by  the  use  of  the  shotgun,  the  pistol 
or  the  knife,  as  is  assumed  by  the  juries  of  certain 
States  in  the  Union,  where  human  life  is  of  no  value 
in  comparison  with  the  satisfaction  of  prejudices  and 
the  slaking  of  hot  anger,  unreasoning  and  maniacal. 
It  is  not  to  be  maintained  either  by  allowing  the 
very  bond  of  the  family  to  be  so  loosened  that  it 
fails  of  its  proper  purpose.  The  reform  must  be 
thorough,  and  it  must  aim  at  diminishing  the  sense 
of  irresponsibility  which  is  too  often  characteristic 
of  the  relations  between  the  members  of  the  same 
family. 

To  put  it  tersely,  the  relations  of  the  family  to  the 
individual  and  of  the  individual  to  the  family  are 
not  quite  in  the  United  States  what  they  are  in 
Europe.  In  Europe,  the  individual  owes  a  duty  to 
the  family,  and  is  Bound,  traditionally  and  morally 
bound,  to  think  first  and  foremost  of  the  family, 
not  of  himself.  What  he  does  is  certain  to  affect 
the  family  as  a  whole,  therefore  he  must  consider  its 

163 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

interests.  His  own  personal  wishes  and  preferences 
may  be  antagonistic  to  the  requirements  of  the  whole 
body;  in  that  case  he  has  to  sacrifice  them.  He  is 
one  of  many,  united  by  a  common  tie :  that  of  blood, 
of  tradition,  of  responsibility.  He  cannot  act  as 
though  he  were  alone  to  be  thought  of ;  he  cannot  do 
that  only  which  pleases  him.  He  is  held  fast  by  in 
numerable  habits  and  modes  of  action,  which  have 
been  the  habits  and  the  modes  of  action  of  those 
who  have  preceded  him,  who  have  handed  down  to 
him  the  honorable  record  which  constitutes  the  fam 
ily  history,  the  family  standing.  He  is  educated, 
trained,  started  in  life  in  accordance  with  the  re 
quirements  and  the  beliefs  which  govern  that  par 
ticular  class  to  which  he  and  his  belong.  He  speaks 
of  himself,  and  thinks  of  himself  as  a  member  of  a 
family.  He  is  one  of  a  select  number.  The  family 
is  the  main  thing ;  the  individual  is  secondary. 

In  the  United  States  it  is  the  opposite,  although 
family  pride  and  family  tradition,  as  understood  in 
Europe,  exist  in  a  small  degree  and  in  certain  parts 
more  than  in  others.  There  are  sets  which  have  pre 
served  the  old  English,  French,  German  or  Dutch 
pride  of  birth  and  ancestry,  but  these  are  compara 
tively  few.  The  greater  number  of  families  in  the 
United  States  are  ignorant  of  the  power  of  that  in 
fluence;  the  leading  motive  is  not  devotion  to  the 
family  as  such,  but  the  success  of  the  individual. 
The  family  owes  a  duty  to  him;  he  does  not  appear 
to  consider  that  in  return  he  has  some  responsibil 
ity  toward  the  family.  It  must  provide  him  with 
the  education  he  needs,  give  him  the  start  in  life 

164 


MARRIAGE 

to  which  he  is  entitled,  and  then  he  is  practically 
done  with  it.  He  has  got  out  of  his  relatives  what 
they  are  able  to  furnish  him  with ;  his  business  is  now 
to  make  his  way.  He  is  not  attached  to  the  place 
where  he  was  born;  the  "old  homestead"  may  occa 
sionally  be  spoken  of  by  him  with  some  emotion  of 
recollection,  but  it  is  an  exceptional  thing  to  see  a 
man,  who  has  made  his  way  in  the  world  and  amassed 
a  fortune,  return  to  the  cradle  of  his  childhood  and 
there  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days.  On  the  con 
trary,  the  American  who  is  getting  on  in  the  world 
is  more  apt  to  pass  from  one  habitation  to  another, 
each  succeeding  one  more  splendid  and  more  luxuri 
ous  than  its  predecessor,  so  that  it  may  be  in  keep 
ing  with  the  change  in  his  circumstances.  Exquisite 
ly  beautiful  estates  are  thrown  on  the  market  and 
cut  up  into  house  lots,  because  the  owner  has  mi 
grated  to  a  more  fashionable  (resort,  where  his 
wealth  will  have  the  chance  to  display  itself,  and  not 
always  with  vulgar  ostentation. 

Here  and  there  one  comes  across  a  property  that 
has  remained  in  the  same  family  for  two  or  three 
hundred  years,  which  is  still  occupied  by  the  descen 
dants  of  the  original  owners,  which  is  rich  in  asso 
ciations  and  memories,  and  which  preserves  intact  all 
that  the  story  of  the  family  has  of  the  honorable 
and  distinguished.  But  this  is  the  rare  exception; 
the  rule  is  newness  and  continual  change. 

Why  this  should  be  the  case  puzzles  the  observer 
at  first.  But  reflection  gives  the  key  to  the  riddle. 
The  self-made  man  is  the  man  in  the  majority:  the 
self-made  man  naturally  likes  to  see  his  own  handi- 

165 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

work,  and  the  best  setting  for  it  is  a  home  of  his 
own  making,  a  house  designed  after  his  own  fancy. 
The  place  he  came  from,  if  he  did  come  from  any 
place  in  particular,  has  no  attraction  for  him;  it  is 
not  his  creation.  Every  successful  American  has  in 
him  the  same  self -pride  which  led  Louis  XIV  to  re 
ject  all  the  splendid  palaces  of  his  predecessors  in 
favor  of  the  Versailles  which  he  created  for  himself. 
The  home  then  becomes  the  outward  and  visible  sign 
of  the  success  of  the  owner.  It  stands  as  a  monu 
ment  to  his  skill,  his  energy,  his  talents.  It  is  a 
perpetual  sweet  savor  to  him,  an  enduring  testimony 
to  what  he  himself,  and  not  any  forbear,  has  accom 
plished  in  the  great  struggle  for  fortune.  This  is  a 
perfectly  natural  and  perfectly  intelligible  state  of 
mind,  and  in  a  country  where  progress  and  develop 
ment  are  so  continuous  and  so  rapid,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  habits  of  the  Old  World  should 
fail  to  commend  themselves  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
New.  In  Europe,  taking  it  all  round,  men  look 
back:  the  past  is  rich  in  tradition  and  story  and 
legend  and  memories  of  great  deeds  performed  by  the 
ancestors.  The  tradition  has  to  be  maintained,  the 
record  carried  on,  and  the  comparison  with  the  past 
is  the  test  applied  to  the  success  of  the  present.  The 
links  are  many  and  close  which  bind  a  man  to  the 
paternal  estate;  the  very  isolation  of  the  English 
land,  guarded  by  its  silver  streak  of  sea,  has  tended 
to  keep  men  within  the  borders.  But  all  these  con 
ditions  are  changed  in  America ;  the  tribe  of  ances 
tors,  no  matter  how  distinguished  and  famous,  does 
not  help  a  man  to  make  his  way;  the  traditions  of 

166 


MARRIAGE 

the  family  will  not  smooth  his  path  nor  make  his  lot 
any  easier;  he  has  to  reckon  upon  himself,  to  carve 
his  road  to  success,  to  found  his  home  for  himself, 
and  to  create  his  own  tradition.  Once  he  has  received 
that  education  which  his  parents  can  afford  to  give 
him,  which,  in  nearly  every  State  is  provided  gratui 
tously  for  him,  it  lies  with  him  and  with  him  alone 
to  turn  it  to  profitable  account.  The  family  has 
done  with  him,  for  he  has  done  with  the  family. 
Each  member  strikes  out  for  himself  or  herself,  each 
one  goes  on  his  or  her  own  way,  and  it  may  be  that 
the  scattered  brothers  and  sisters  will  not  meet 
again,  unless,  perchance,  in  some  of  those  associa 
tions  of  persons  bearing  the  same  name  which  have 
sprung  up  of  late  years,  and  draw  together  all  those 
who  are  connected  with  some  branch  of  some  old 
English  stock. 

Thus  there  is  not  the  profound  sense  of  family 
allegiance  which  exists  in  European  society,  and  the 
man  or  the  woman  who  seeks  freedom  from  the  ties 
of  wedlock,  does  so  unhesitatingly,  as  a  matter  which 
concerns  himself  or  herself  alone.  Personal  interest 
only  is  at.  stake ;  nothing  pertaining  to  a  wider  circle 
is  involved,  and  the  very  fact  that  the  action  of 
an  individual  necessarily  exerts  an  influence  on  so 
ciety  at  large  is  forgotten  in  the  pursuit  of  indi 
vidual  gratification.  Commodore  Vanderbilt  gained 
fame  by  his  remark :  "Damn  the  public !"  but  those 
who  laughingly  quote  that  celebrated  saying  are 
themselves  apt  to  apply  the  principle  which  dictated 
it,  whenever  their  own  interests  clash  with  public 
morality.  A  man  whose  vast  wealth  gives  him  the 

167 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

great  prominence  which  wealth  bestows  in  the  United 
States  does  not  stop  for  a  second  to  consider 
whether  that  wealth  and  that  prominence  involves, 
on  his  part,  responsibilities  toward  the  public,  to 
ward  society.  All  he  thinks  of  is  what  he  desires  to 
do,  and  having  decided  that  he  wants  to  do  that  par 
ticular  thing,  he  does  it,  remorselessly,  unhesitat 
ingly,  simply  because  it  suits  him.  And  he  would 
be  infinitely  surprised  were  he  to  be  told  that  in  thus 
satisfying  his  own  wishes  he  is  guilty  of  a  moral 
crime  against  the  society  of  the  land  that  has  given 
him  his  wealth  and  his  influence. 

Again,  the  training  of  children  in  average  Amer 
ican  homes  is  not  on  the  whole  such  as  to  impress 
upon  them,  at  that  period  of  life  when  impressions 
sink  deep  in  the  mind,  a  real  regard  for  others  than 
themselves.  It  is  a  moot  question,  of  course,  and  one 
not  really  solved,  that  of  the  proper  training  to  be 
given  to  children.  The  American  claims  that  he  has 
turned  out  the  finest  specimen  of  womanhood  the 
world  has  ever  seen  when  he  turns  out  "the  American 
girl."  That  is  as  it  may  be,  and  opinions  differ, 
even  in  America,  concerning  the  supposed  superior 
ity  of  the  girl.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  American 
training  of  the  child,  boy  or  girl,  is  wholly  in  the 
direction  of  independence  from  parental  control  at 
the  earliest  age.  Boys  and  girls  alike  imbibe  from 
the  first  the  sense  of  freedom  from  all  rule  and  all 
obstacles  to  the  fulfillment  of  their  wishes.  There  is 
no  restraint,  to  a  certain  extent,  except  the  re 
straint  resorted  to  for  the  sake  of  peace,  of  com 
fort  ;  and  not  as  a  matter  of  principle,  as  a  means  of 

168 


MARRIAGE 

discipline.  The  American  child  has  as  decided  an 
objection  to  discipline  as  the  grown  American  has  to 
law  which  presses  unfavorably  upon  him.  And  it  is 
easier  to  yield  to  the  child  than  to  compel  it  to 
obey.  Hence  the  development  of  individualism 
which  afterwards  bears  both  good  and  bad  fruit,  for 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  form  of  education, 
however  startling  and  repugnant  even  to  the  Euro 
pean,  accustomed  to  the  traditional  methods  of  his 
land,  is  devoid  of  excellence.  Far  from  it:  the  very 
independence  induces  later  the  determination  to  make 
one's  own  way,  and  not  to  be  dependent  upon  parents 
or  family  for  that  income  which  the  boy  or  the  girl 
can  earn  alone.  It  has  the  advantage  of  cultivating 
self-reliance  and  resourcefulness,  initiative  and  en 
ergy;  the  child  as  it  grows  learns  more  and  more 
to  do  things  for  itself;  it  learns  early  to  look  to  it 
self  for  the  satisfaction  of  its  desires.  Parental 
authority  is  doubtless  greatly  weakened,  and  harm 
ful  results  flow  from  that  fact,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  good  also  is  derived  from  the  spirit  of  self- 
help  and  self-direction.  Girls  are  too  apt  to  make 
unfortunate  marriages,  and  then  to  have  recourse 
to  the  attractive  court  which  decrees  divorce;  too 
apt  to  reject  with  contempt  the  warnings  of  their 
elders  and  to  start  out  in  life  for  themselves  without 
the  safeguards  which  are  still  considered  necessary 
for  women,  even  in  so  advanced  a  state  of  society  as 
obtains  in  the  United  States.  But  there  is  much 
advantage  also,  and  in  comparison  there  are  not  only 
more  girls  and  women  capable  of  earning  a  respect 
able  livelihood  for  themselves,  but  there  is  also  a 

169 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

far  higher  standard  of  opinion  respecting  the  woman 
who  makes  her  own  way  in  the  world  and  is  not  con 
tent  to  rely  for  the  necessities  of  life  upon  her  im 
mediate  or  her  distant  relatives. 

Nor  is  the  European  tradition,  the  European  habit 
absent  totally.  There  are  many  families  in  which 
all  the  sweetness  of  family  life,  as  understood  and 
practiced  in  England  or  France,  abounds ;  where  the 
parental  authority  is  still  dominant ;  where  the  sense 
of  responsibility  and  interdependence  is  yet  strong 
and  lively,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  finer 
examples  of  true  homes  and  beautiful  family  life 
than  one  meets  not  infrequently  in  this  country. 
The  general  system  has  gradually  arisen  as  a  con 
sequence  of  the  struggle  for  the  necessities  of  life  in 
a  land  where  such  struggle  is  keen  and  competition 
is  fierce;  where  every  man  has  to  work  and  every 
woman  to  slave,  unless  she  is  endowed  with  a  suffi 
ciency  of  this  world's  goods ;  but  there  is  this  radical 
difference  in  favor  of  the  American  conditions,  that 
woman's  sphere  of  usefulness  and  activity  has  been 
vastly  extended,  that  it  has  enabled  her  to  assume  a 
rank  more  in  consonance  with  her  natural  rights,  to 
prove  her  capacity,  her  power  of  sufficing  unto  her 
self,  and  to  relieve  her  of  the  burden  of  inferiority 
which  is  still  too  largely  her  share  in  the  Old  World. 

The  training  of  the  average  American  child  does 
not  fit  it  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  European  tradi 
tions  of  the  family,  and  it  is  impossible,  or  at  least 
exceedingly  difficult,  to  make  the  American  under 
stand  the  condition  of  things  in  this  respect  in  the 
old  European  countries.  The  French  law,  which  re- 

170 


MARRIAGE 

quires  the  consent  of  the  parents  to  the  marriage 
of  children,  is  utterly  unintelligible  to  the  American 
youth,  who  holds  very  firmly  to  the  opinion  that  mar 
riage  is  a  matter  concerning  two  people  only,  and 
with  which  parents  have  no  real  and  sound  right  to 
interfere  in  any  way.  The  independence  of  thought, 
the  independence  of  habit  which  are  characteristic 
of  the  American,  are  opposed  to  the  application  of 
European  ideas  and  traditions  in  the  education  of 
the  young.  Those  who  bear  affectionate  regard  to 
these  traditions  and  ideas  mourn  the  fact,  but  all 
the  mourning  and  wailing,  all  the  regret  and  longing 
will  not  change  the  practice  one  iota.  Conditions  are 
essentially  different,  and  results  must  perforce  be 
different  also. 

It  is  not,  then,  by  fulminating  condemnation  of  the 
habit  and  practice  of  easy  divorce  that  the  churches 
will  ever  succeed  in  checking  the  evil  practice.  All 
the  canons  they  enthusiastically  pass  will  not  prevent 
the  average  individual  from  continuing  to  seek  in 
the  courts  that  relief  from  bonds  which  have  swiftly 
become  irksome.  The  protests  of  the  press,  eloquent 
and  sound  as  they  are,  fail  to  move  those  who  have 
absolutely  no  notion  of  the  individual's  responsibility 
to  the  community. 

Society  is  not  on  the  side  of  the  Church  or  the 
press  in  this  respect.  Divorce  is  not  condemned 
by  the  bulk  of  the  people  and  is  not  looked  upon  as 
a  wrong  thing.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  currently  and 
commonly  spoken  of  as  a  ready  means  of  getting 
rid  of  difficulties  which,  were  separation  not  easily 
obtainable  might,  and  in  many  cases  would,  be  met 

171 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

with  a  sincere  desire  to  overcome  them.  But  why 
trouble  with  overcoming  obstacles  when  they  can  be 
avoided  altogether?  Why  think  for  a  moment  of 
striving  to  introduce  harmony  instead  of  discord 
when  it  is  so  easy  to  get  rid  of  the  discord  by  simply 
getting  a  divorce?  Why  worry  over  the  possible 
difficulties  of  marriage  when  marriage  need  not  be 
more  than  a  passing  recreation  and  satisfaction? 
Why  think  of  responsibilities  to  the  community 
when  one  has  been  brought  up  in  the  individualistic 
creed  ? 

Along  this  line,  surely,  lies  the  work  of  the  pul 
pit  and  the  press,  not,  as  the  former  appears  to 
imagine,  in  the  framing  of  more  canons,  in  the  elab 
oration  of  more  regulations.  The  curse  of  the 
United  States  is  the  superabundance  of  laws ;  laws 
which  are  swiftly  enacted  and  as  swiftly  ignored  or 
evaded.  What  is  wanted  is  not  more  law,  but  a 
recognition  of  the  force  and  necessity  and  useful 
ness  of  law;  not  more  canons  and  sermons,  but  an 
effort  to  so  alter  the  training  of  the  child,  from  its 
earliest  years,  that  it  shall  realize,  once  arrived  at 
man's  estate,  that  the  individual  lives  not  for  him 
self  alone,  especially  in  a  democratic  community — 
but  has  weighty  responsibilities  toward  that  com 
munity;  responsibilities  which  cannot  be  shirked 
without  danger  to  the  individual,  without  positive 
harm  to  the  common  weal. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  check  or  destroy  the  demo 
cratic  spirit,  so  fruitful  of  good  in  so  many  ways; 
it  is  only  necessary  to  enlighten  it,  and  to  make 
its  possessors  perceive  that  democracy  has  not  ful- 


MARRIAGE 

filled  its  purpose  when  it  has  bestowed  liberty  upon 
the  individual,  but  that  it  also  has  to  conserve  the 
morality  of  society,  and  that  in  a  higher  and  more 
thorough  way  than  may  be  possible  under  any  other 
form  of  government. 

For  if  there  be  indeed  a  virtue  in  democracy,  and 
of  that  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  virtue  should 
work  for  the  welfare  of  the  mass  as  well  as  of  the  in 
dividual.  Democracy  does  not  mean  government  for 
the  private  benefit  of  the  isolated  but  government  for 
the  highest  good  of  all.  It  has  a  task  to  achieve  yet 
in  the  United  States,  and  it  is  capable  of  carrying  it 
to  a  successful  issue.  When,  to  the  sense  of  free 
dom,  of  personal  independence  and  power,  now  so 
rife  among  the  Americans,  is  added  the  due  recogni 
tion  of  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  individ 
ual  to  society,  freedom  and  independence  will  not 
be  lessened,  but  broadened,  and  happiness,  declared 
by  the  Constitution  to  be  an  inalienable  right  of 
man,  will  be  far  more  surely  secured  for  the  greater 
number  than  it  is  at  present.  The  selfishness  too 
evident  in  the  conception  and  practice  of  life  will 
be  replaced  by  a  higher  and  healthier  conception  of 
the  relations  between  the  members  of  the  community, 
and  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  evils  which  now  afflict  so 
ciety  will  disappear.  But  selfishness,  or  that  form  of 
it  dignified  too  often  with  the  name  of  independence, 
must  first  be  checked  and  diminished.  In  that  direc 
tion  should  the  churches  work,  and  along  that  line 
should  the  press  teach. 


XI 

WOMAN 

A  noteworthy  effect  of  democracy  in  the  United 
States  has  been  the  uplifting  of  woman.  Democracy 
has  accomplished  many  things,  and  will  yet  accom 
plish  more,  for  in  it  lies  the  hope  of  the  human 
race,  but  what  it  has  done  for  woman  surpasses  all 
else.  Not  that  the  end  is  reached  yet,  or  the  goal 
won ;  far  from  it ;  but  at  least  a  fair  start  has  been 
made,  and  there  can  be  no  going  back,  no  retracing 
the  steps  taken,  no  undoing  the  good  work  accom 
plished.  The  steady  rising  of  woman  to  the  place 
which  she  claims  as  her  just  due,  to  the  equality  she 
insists  she  is  entitled  to,  is  not  now  to  be  stemmed, 
and  all  the  arguments  brought  against  it,  all  the 
ridicule  showered  upon  it,  will  but  result  in  the 
stronger  growth  of  the  belief  that  woman  has  as 
much  right  to  liberty  and  the  consequences  of  liberty 
as  her  brother  man. 

The  United  States  is  unquestionably  ahead  of 
Europe  in  the  general  education  of  women,  and  the 
day  is  past  when  it  could  be  claimed  that  woman 
is  intellectually  inferior  to  man.  She  has  as  eager 
a  desire  for  instruction,  as  quick  a  mind  to  receive 
it,  as  steadfast  a  perseverance  in  striving  after  it, 

174 


WOMAN 

and  she  attains  eminence  as  readily  as  does  the  so- 
called  nobler  sex,  which  has  so  long  considered  her 
practically  an  inferior  being.  It  is  perhaps  the  most 
marvelous  of  the  many  marvelous  spectacles  which 
America  presents,  this  spectacle  of  the  progress 
made  by  the  feminist  movement.-  It  is  not  much 
more  than  a  couple  of  generations  since  it  took  prac 
tical  form,  and  the  successes  it  has  scored  since 
then  augur  well  for  the  future  triumph  of  the  idea 
which  underlies  it. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  even  now  there  is  an 
enormous  amount  of  opposition  to  the  extension 
of  the  rights  of  woman  to  the  same  limits  as  the 
rights  of  man;  that  among  women  themselves  are 
very  many  who  are  strongly  in  antagonism  to  the 
views  of  the  reformers  and  progressists ;  that  among 
men  the  vast  majority  entertain  the  identical  opin 
ions  which  have  held  sway  for  centuries,  and  believe 
conscientiously  that  any  further  development  along 
the  present  lines  can  only  insure  harm  to  the  social 
body,  and  to  the  family  in  particular.  This  is  nat 
ural,  and  not  every  movement  for  the  spread  of 
freedom  is  at  once  successful.  The  movement  for  the 
establishing  of  the  absolute  equality  of  men  and 
women  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  things,  but  evoke 
virulent  opposition.  The  habit  of  looking  on  woman 
as  an  inferior,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  is  so  rooted 
that  it  will  take  years  to  instil  different  notions  in 
the  mind  of  the  rising  generation.  Then  the  fact 
that  in  many  colleges  where  co-education  is  the  rule, 
the  women  manage  to  secure  more  honors  than  their 
male  competitors,  that  they  exhibit  a  quickness  and 

175 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

a  readiness  in  assimilating  the  instruction  received, 
that  they  prove  by  their  application  and  earnest 
ness  their  fitness  for  higher  education,  indisposes 
many  against  them,  instead  of  securing  their  sup 
port.  It  is  hopeless  to  try  to  convert  those  who  are 
convinced  that  the  whole  idea  is  unsound ;  that  is  the 
result  of  centuries  of  habit.  But  with  the  young 
generation  it  is  different,  and  as  the  years  go  by  it 
may  confidently  be  expected  that  the  question,  so 
important  and  so  fraught  with  vital  consequences 
to  the  welfare  of  the  community,  will  be  discussed 
with  less  prejudice  and  a  greater  readiness  to  con 
cede  that  in  a  democratic  country  women  are  en 
titled  to  equal  rights  with  men. 

And  truly  it  is  not  a  comforting  reflection  for  a 
Briton  that  it  has  been  the  deliberately  chosen  part 
of  a  body  of  women  in  Great  Britain  to  prove  to 
the  world  that  they  are  essentially,  constitutionally, 
unfit  to  exercise  power.  In  respect  of  the  suffrage 
movement  this  country  of  ours  has  made  a  lament 
able  exhibition  of  itself,  which  contrasts  unpleasantly 
with  the  saner  methods  of  the  American  friends  of 
the  cause.  In  America  woman  suffrage,  though  it 
does  not  excite  wild  enthusiasm,  is  steadily  making 
its  way,  and  whether  one  believes  in  the  idea  or  not, 
there  is  no  disposition  to  turn  it  into  ridicule  or 
to  oppose  it  by  any  but  rational  means. 

Consequently  women  have  won  the  suffrage  in  a 
number  of  States  and  will  win  it  the  land  over.  With 
us,  the  madness  of  the  "Furies,"  as  they  have  well 
been  called,  has  set  the  movement  back  for  years. 
And  the  weak  and  very  half-hearted  condemnation 

176 


WOMAN 

of  the  militants  by  the  Constitutional  societies  re 
veals  plainly  the  secret  admiration  the  latter  have 
for  the  former. 

On  the  simple  basis  of  justice,  of  the  application 
of  the  democratic  principle,  British  women  ought  to 
have  the  right  of  suffrage.  But  is  it  to  be  wondered 
at  that  hesitation  has  been  transformed  into  hostility 
when  the  very  actions  of  the  women  and  their  defense 
of  these  actions  prove  beyond  a  shadow  of  a  doubt 
that  they  are  incapable  of  seeing  the  right  and 
wrong  of  matters,  that  they  lack  common  sense,  fore 
sight,  ordinary  intelligence? 

"The  American  girl"  and  the  American  woman 
generally  has  not  been  guilty  of  such  folly  as  her 
British  sisters.  She  proved  herself  capable,  she 
upheld  in  sensible  fashion  the  justice  of  her  claim 
and  she  has  carried  her  point  in  more  than  one  State 
and  is  likely  ere  long  to  secure  the  suffrage  in  Fed 
eral  matters.  In  other  words  she  has  shown  herself 
superior  to  that  portion,  at  least,  of  her  British 
sisters  whose  conduct  has  debased  the  high  ideal  of 
womanhood  and  set  back  the  accomplishment  of  a 
legitimate  and  just  demand. 

Already  it  is  the  sense,  unconscious  in  many  cases, 
of  this  fact  which  has  made  the  American  woman 
different  from  her  sisters  in  Europe;  for  she  is  dif 
ferent.  She  has  acquired  the  feeling  that  she  is  as 
good  as  man,  and  it  will  be  impossible  for  man  to 
uproot  that  notion  once  it  has  taken  firm  hold.  She 
has  learned  that  she  can  do  many  things,  and  do 
them  well,  which  it  was  taken  for  granted  a  woman 
was  incapable  of  performing.  She  has  won  her  place 

177 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  holds  it ;  she  is  aware  of  her  powers,  and  means 
to  use  them.  She  sees  that  these  powers  involve  re 
sponsibilities  and  she  is  willing  to  assume  and  dis 
charge  these.  She  has  secured  for  herself  not  the 
education  of  the  public  and  high  schools  alone,  but 
of  the  college  and  the  university,  and  in  these  higher 
fields  she  has  proved  her  ability  alongside  of  men 
trained  with  the  advantage  of  long  tradition  on  their 
side.  That  she  is  not  infrequently  inferior  yet  in 
certain  points  is  not  an  argument  against  her  even 
tual  capacity  to  equal  man  in  this  respect.  It  is 
probably  the  outcome,  the  very  natural  outcome,  of 
the  long  subjection  in  which  she  has  been  held,  of 
the  refusal  to  give  her  instruction,  of  the  assump 
tion  that  the  Creator  did  not  intend  her  to  occupy 
a  place  by  the  side  of  man,  but  one  beneath  him. 

The  conditions  of  life  in  the  United  States,  differ 
ing  so  widely  in  many  ways  from  those  of  life  in 
Europe,  have  facilitated  the  success  of  the  feminist 
movement.  The  diminution  of  home  duties  and  re 
sponsibilities,  due  largely  to  economic  causes,  has 
led  to  the  need  of  other  occupations ;  to  the  filling  of 
time  with  other  matters  than  housekeeping,  where 
housekeeping  is  either  not  called  for  or  is  already 
in  charge  of  someone  else.  Women  necessarily  re 
quired  an  occupation:  education  of  the  mind  ap 
peared  to  offer  the  needed  satisfaction,  and  once  it 
was  tasted,  it  was  liked.  Hence  the  great  growth  of 
the  numbers  of  college-bred  women,  numbers  which 
are  steadily  and  rapidly  increasing  throughout  the 
country. 

It  is  too  early  to  pronounce  definitely  upon  the 
178 


WOMAN 

vexed  question  of  the  effect  of  college  education  upon 
woman  and  the  home.  It  is  urged  by  some  opposed 
to  the  higher  education  of  women,  that  it  unfits  them 
for  home  duties;  first,  by  taking  them  away  at  a 
time  of  life  when  they  ought  to  be  learning  house 
keeping;  second,  by  leading  them  to  interest  them 
selves  in  questions  which  are  not  of  their  competence. 
These  arguments  have  really  no  very  solid  founda 
tion,  and  already  have  been  successfully  controverted 
in  actual  experience  by  the  simple  fact  that  many  a 
woman  college  graduate  has  proved  that  a  broad 
education,  far  from  impairing  her  ability  to  make 
a  good  wife  and  a  good  housekeeper,  tends  rather 
to  develop  in  her  the  very  qualities  needed  in  these 
positions,  besides  affording  her  a  means  of  widening 
her  life  and  thus  making  her  yet  more  of  a  help 
meet  and  a  companion  to  her  husband. 

In  truth,  the  force  and  persistency  of  the  cen 
turies  old  tradition  of  the  intellectual  inferiority 
of  woman  is  accepted  without  reflection  by  many 
men  and  women  alike,  and  out  of  that  tradition,  con 
vention  has  built  up  a  system  of  repressive  rules  and 
observances  which  hem  in  woman  even  now  and  even 
in  the  democratic  United  States,  albeit  much  less 
there  than  in  Europe.  In  the  latter,  the  rise  of 
woman  has  been  exceedingly  slow,  and  her  status 
has  been  uplifted  little  by  little  and  only  with  extreme 
difficulty.  This  is  the  logical  consequence  of  the 
condition  of  society  as  the  latter  gradually  emerged 
from  the  overthrow  of  the  old  Roman  civilization  by 
the  invasion  of  the  Teutonic  nations.  In  the  state 
of  war  which  then  obtained,  woman  necessarily  was 

179 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

relegated  to  the  background;  her  dependence  upon 
the  physically  stronger  sex  was  accentuated,  and 
lasted  so  long  that  it  became  an  article  of  faith. 
And  at  a  time  when  instruction  was  confined  to  an 
exceedingly  small  minority  of  the  whole  population, 
it  was  natural  that  no  thought  should  be  bestowed 
upon  the  intellectual  development  of  woman  herself, 
although  it  was  mainly  women  who  formed  the  audi 
ence  of  the  minstrels  and  who  aided  in  the  conserva 
tion  of  the  literature  of  the  day,  not  infrequently, 
indeed,  contributing  to  it  themselves. 

Even  with  the  improvement  in  the  social  conditions 
which  followed  upon  the  substitution  of  peace  for 
war  as  the  normal  state  of  society,  with  the  growth 
of  instruction,  albeit  still  slow  and  partial,  it  was  a 
belief  so  firmly  implanted  in  the  minds  of  men  and 
women  alike  that  the  latter  was  incapable  of  higher 
instruction  that  no  real  attempt  was  made  to  supply 
them  with  opportunities  to  prove  their  fitness  for 
it.  And  this  in  face  of  the  fact  that  in  France, 
for  example,  it  was  a  woman  who  led  the  way  in  the 
uplifting  of  literature  and  language,  and  that  women 
shone  in  the  galaxy  of  illustrious  writers  who  made 
famous  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  Even  the  eight 
eenth  century,  with  its  marvelous  impulse  toward 
progress  and  liberty,  failed  to  recognize  the  pos 
sibility  of  woman  equaling  her  brother  man  in  let 
ters,  science  and  art.  It  was  reserved  for  the  nine 
teenth,  and  especially  for  the  nineteenth  century  in 
America,  to  proclaim  the  right  of  woman  to  obtain 
an  education  similar  in  every  respect  to  that  of 
man. 

180 


WOMAN 

The  real  cause  of  the  uplifting  of  woman  is  of 
course  to  be  sought  still  further  back.  Whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  worship  of  the  Virgin,  by 
those  who  do  not  form  part  of  the  Roman  com 
munion,  it  is  undeniable  that  the  action  of  the  Church 
contributed  greatly  to  bring  about  a  higher  concep 
tion  of  the  status  of  woman  and  to  develop  a  more 
chivalrous  attitude  with  regard  to  her.  And  that 
sprang  from  the  essential  result  of  the  Christian 
doctrine,  which,  as  has  been  aptly  said,  taught  the 
dignity  of  the  human  soul.  Now  even  the  bitterest 
opponents  of  the  equality  of  women  would  scarcely 
venture  to  affirm  that  women  have  no  souls.  It  was 
this  doctrine,  the  truth  of  which  deepened  with  the 
centuries,  that  gradually  aroused  men  to  the  recog 
nition  of  the  rights  of  man,  those  rights  so  ardently 
proclaimed  by  the  French  revolutionists,  and  which 
are  now  accepted  as  the  basis  of  democratic  govern 
ment.  But  if  man  enjoyed  these  natural  rights,  it 
was  hard  to  deny  them  to  woman,  and  thus  little  by 
little  dawned  the  thought  that  woman  was  not  the 
inferior  but  the  complete  equal  of  man.  It  is  this 
democratic  belief  which  is  at  the  root  of  the  differ 
ence  between  the  American  woman  and  her  sister  in 
Europe.  In  the  latter,  the  faith  still  holds  that  be 
cause  physically  weaker  she  is  therefore  intellec 
tually  weaker,  and,  consequently,  unable  to  under 
stand  many  questions  which  the  nobler  intelligence 
of  her  brother  man  solves  without  the  least  difficulty. 
In  America,  on  the  contrary,  the  feeling  has  grown 
steadily  that  the  intelligence  of  woman  is  as  keen,  as 
strong,  as  true  as  that  of  man ;  that  woman  is  quite 

181 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

as  capable  of  mental  improvement  as  is  man ;  that  she 
is  as  able  as  he  to  enter  into  the  study  of  questions 
affecting  the  moral  welfare  of  the  home  and  the  com 
munity.  This  just  appreciation  of  her  capacity  has 
led  to  the  spread  of  education  for  women  on  the  same 
general  lines  as  for  men;  it  has  brought  about  the 
foundation  of  institutions  in  which,  either  in  com 
pany  with  men  or  apart  from  them,  women  are  able 
to  obtain  the  instruction  for  which  their  intellect 
craves.  It  has  caused  the  admission  of  women  to 
learned  professions,  where  they  have  proved  their 
fitness  for  duties  hitherto  considered  strictly  con 
fined  to  men.  It  has  enabled  them  to  show  that  the 
supposed  inferiority  existed  because  it  was  sedulously 
kept  up  by  the  denial  of  opportunities,  but  that 
once  the  principle  of  equal  opportunities,  already  vin 
dicated  in  the  case  of  men,  was  applied  to  women, 
they  also  manifested  the  beneficial  results  of  the 
spirit  of  democracy. 

The  American  woman  has  the  advantage  of  being 
brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  independence ;  not 
of  political  independence  only,  but  of  independence 
of  thought.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  American 
that  he  is  an  original  thinker  in  business,  in  the  arts, 
in  the  professions ;  he  is  not  bound  down  hard  and 
fast  by  traditions  which  are  weighted  with  the  respec 
tability  of  age;  he  shakes  himself  free  from  tram 
mels  which  hamper  his  European  competitor,  and  he 
does  not  hesitate  to  attempt  experiments  which  may 
prove  disastrous  but  which  are  often  crowned  with 
brilliant  success.  He  is  inventive ;  resourceful ;  he 
is  full  of  initiative,  and  these  qualities  are  met  with 

182 


WOMAN 

in  the  women  of  the  race  as  they  are  in  the  men. 
It  was  impossible,  therefore,  that  the  American 
woman  should  continue  to  be  bound  by  the  ideas  of 
the  Old  World,  that  she  should  be  willing  to  remain 
what  her  sisters  in  the  older  lands  had  been  forced 
to  remain  for  so  long.  It  was  impossible  that, 
breathing  the  atmosphere  of  freedom,  of  individual 
ism  of  the  United  States,  she  should  be  content  to 
lag  behind  and  to  renounce  the  opportunities  which 
democracy  offers  to  all  who  are  intelligent,  active, 
persevering  and  able.  She  saw  her  chance  and  took 
it.  She  took  it  in  spite  of  an  opposition  rooted  in 
old  beliefs,  which,  though  they  cannot  be  as  strong 
in  a  new  land  as  in  an  old  one,  nevertheless  still  form 
part  and  parcel  of  the  accepted  conventions  of  so 
ciety.  She  has  had  to  fight  for  her  rights,  exactly 
as  the  men  of  1776  had  to  fight  for  theirs,  and  like 
them  she  has  won  the  battle.  She  still  has  much  to 
overcome,  much  prejudice  to  destroy,  but  the  prog 
ress  she  has  made  is  such  as  to  warrant  the  belief, 
optimistic  it  may  be,  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  her  complete  equality  will  be  acknowledged 
without  dispute  or  reservation. 

John  Knox,  when  he  set  about  his  reformation, 
saw  clearly  that  the  hope  of  progress  and  the  gage 
of  victory  lay  in  the  education  of  the  people,  and 
he  founded  that  admirable  school  system  which  has 
enabled  the  Scottish  race  to  make  its  mark  wherever 
Scotsmen  are  found.  The  French  revolutionists  per 
ceived  the  same  truth,  and  although  they  could  not 
carry  out  the  principle  in  its  entirety,  they  pro 
claimed  universal  and  compulsory  education  for  all 

183 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

classes.  The  founders  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts  likewise  had  already  applied  that 
principle,  and  had  given  education  a  foremost  place 
in  their  plan  of  government.  The  United  States, 
as  it  grew,  developed  common  school  education 
with  the  result  that  at  the  present  moment  instruc 
tion  is  practically  universal  and  all  children  are 
enabled  to  acquire  it. 

The  women  of  America,  far  from  being  intellectu 
ally  inferior  to  men,  saw  for  themselves  that  the 
first  step  in  the  march  to  victory  must  be  education, 
higher  education  for  women,  and  to  that  they  bent 
their  efforts.  They  would  have  wished  co-education 
established  in  all  the  colleges  and  universities,  and 
it  was  with  regret  that  the  more  ardent  champions  of 
the  cause  saw  the  founding  of  separate  colleges  for 
girls.  But  even  with  separate  education,  the  rapid 
growth  of  higher  instruction  for  the  sex  to  which  it 
had  been  so  long  denied  was  marvelous.  Institu 
tions  which  now  number  their  students  by  hundreds, 
remember  easily  the  day  when  there  were  scarcely 
some  scores.  And  with  every  passing  year  the  move 
ment  will  gain  greater  force  and  greater  develop 
ment.  In  America  higher  education  for  women  is 
no  longer  an  experiment ;  it  is  a  settled  fact. 

A  woman  writer  has  said :  "Kings  are  enslaved  by 
women,  you  know,  and  statesmen  are  led  by  them, 
though  they  oughtn't  to  be.  And  poets  worship 
them,  else  how  could  they  write  poetry  ?  There  would 
be  nothing  to  write  about.  It  is  reserved  for  boys 
and  savages  to  look  down  upon  them."  Of  a  surety 
it  is  not  the  American  woman  who  runs  the  risk  of 

184 


WOMAN 

being  looked  down  upon.  Her  power  is  too  well  es 
tablished,  her  influence  too  great  to  admit  of  any 
but  respectful  consideration  of  her  claims.  She  has 
gained  a  position  for  herself,  and  she  is  certain  to 
maintain  it.  Her  prestige,  her  charm  are  recog 
nized.  She  has  developed  herself  into  a  type  of  her 
sex,  and  however  much  the  type  may  grate  upon 
those  who  hold  by  antique  traditions,  it  is  the  type 
of  the  future.  She  has  asserted  her  right  to  absolute 
and  perfect,  equality  with  man,  and  she  will  not  rest 
until  she  has  fully  compassed  her  ends.  No  one  now 
in  America  would  venture  to  propose  the  closing  of 
educational  institutions  to  women,  and  education 
is  for  them  what  it  has  been  and  what  it  is  for 
men:  the  means  to  liberty. 

The  women  in  America  are  the  really  civilizing 
class.  Culture  must  largely  depend  upon  them  in 
the  present  conditions  of  things.  Men,  most  men, 
are  too  much  occupied  in  the  struggle  for  life  and 
wealth  to  have  leisure  or  inclination  for  the  pursuit 
of  the  more  refining  influences.  They  have  not  time, 
or  think  they  have  no  time,  to  maintain  purity  in 
politics.  The  women  have  interested  themselves  in 
politics ;  they  have  not  yet  succeeded  everywhere 
in  obtaining  the  suffrage,  but  their  influence  is  felt 
and,  on  the  whole,  it  is  a  very  beneficial  influence. 
They  have  been  the  movers  in  more  than  one  ad 
mirable  and  much  needed  reform ;  they  have  secured 
the  promulgation  of  laws  which  have  contributed  to 
the  moral  and  physical  improvement  of  women  and 
children  throughout  the  land;  they  have  tended  to 
set  up  a  higher  standard  of  public  morality;  they 

185 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

have  forced  discussion  of  subjects  of  genuine  im 
portance,  which,  however,  were  neglected  because  the 
rulers  of  the  "superior"  sex  had  other  matters  to 
take  up  their  attention. 

It  is  recognized  that  they  have  contributed  very 
greatly  to  the  development  and  amelioration  of  edu 
cation.  The  instruction  of  the  larger  number  of 
the  children  is  in  their  hands,  and  in  higher  insti 
tutions  of  learning  they  occupy  positions  won  by 
merit  and  retained  by  capacity.  They  have,  by 
persistent  and  unceasing  effort,  accomplished  much 
in  the  uplifting  of  moral  standards,  in  the  promotion 
of  temperance  and  purity.  Their  record,  as  reform 
ers,  is  simply  superb,  and  their  work  in  that  direc 
tion  is  yet  far  from  being  done.  They  have  origin 
ated  and  carried  out  schemes,  of  the  most  practical 
kind,  for  the  alleviation  of  suffering  and  poverty: 
the  college  settlements  in  all  the  large  cities  do  an 
amount  of  good  which  one  may  sneer  at  but  which 
is  undeniable.  They  are  one  of  the  strongest  mo 
tive  forces  in  the  extension  of  the  benefits  of  ap 
plied  Christianity,  and  they  daily  give  proof  of  that 
spirit  of  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice  for  which  their 
sex  has  been  famous  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries. 

There  is  more.  The  American  woman,  well  edu 
cated,  well  informed,  interested  in  innumerable  and 
diverse  subjects,  has  fitted  herself  to  be  a  comrade  to 
man.  Her  attractiveness  and  charm  lie  no  longer  only 
in  her  power  to  please  the  eye ;  her  intellectual  quali 
ties  commend  her  to  the  serious  consideration  of 
man.  She  can  discuss  topics  which  interest  men,  as 
she  can  talk  delightfully  on  points  of  especial  at- 

186 


WOMAN 

traction  to  women.  She  can  take  part  in  conversa 
tions  on  the  most  serious  themes,  and  she  can  lead 
the  talk  into  channels  of  gaiety.  She  is  richer  in 
tellectually  than  she  was  in  other  times,  and  more 
generally  so. 

It  is  the  rule,  in  the  United  States,  and  not  the 
exception,  to  meet  women  who  can  hold  their  own  in 
any  discussion,  and  this  fact  lends  a  charm  and  im 
parts  an  interest  to  the  intercourse  with  them  which 
are  lacking  in  the  converse  with  the  merely  well 
brought-up  girl  or  woman  who  was  bound  by  conven 
tion  to  ignore  so  much.  The  man  who  prefers  to 
consort  with  his  recognized  inferiors  is  not  the  man 
who  is  well  thought  of;  the  man  who  seeks  the  so 
ciety  of  those  who  are  his  superiors  mentally,  and 
profits  by  it,  is  the  one  who  himself  will  rise.  This 
is  generally  acknowledged,  and  the  habit  is  encour 
aged.  Yet,  singularly  enough,  the  opposite  is  at 
the  root  of  the  tradition  concerning  woman.  If  she 
be,  as  is  still  held  by  so  many,  inferior  to  man,  the 
latter's  avowed  liking  for  her  society  and  compan 
ionship  reflects  upon  him.  But  she  is  not,  save  in  so 
far  as  circumstances  have  made  her  so,  and  her  pres 
ent  effort  to  attain  complete  equality  should  enlist 
sympathy  and  aid  rather  than  ridicule  and  opposi 
tion. 

But  even  in  advanced  America  it  is  very  hard  for 
her  to  win  at  all  points.  It  is  customary  to  speak 
of  the  American  as  particularly  chivalrous  in  his 
bearing  toward  women.  Yet  that  same  American  in 
sists  as  we  do  here  upon  making  a  marked  difference 
in  the  retribution  for  precisely  analogous  work  per- 

187 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

formed  on  the  one  hand  by  men,  on  the  other  by 
women.  The  number  of  women  teachers  greatly  ex 
ceeds  that  of  men  teachers.  Very  many  of  the 
women  have  attained  high  distinction  as  instructors, 
both  in  their  pedagogical  and  in  their  administrative 
work ;  none  the  less  the  scale  of  salaries  for  women  is 
calculated  on  a  lower  basis  than  are  the  salaries 
paid  to  men. 

It  is  difficult  for  a  woman  of  proved  ability  and 
efficiency  to  obtain  a  position  as  high  as  a  man  can 
secure  without  the  least  trouble.  The  prejudice  is 
still  extant,  still  vigorous,  and  although  it  has  time 
and  again  been  proved  unfounded,  it  persists  and 
a  man  is  given  the  post  which  the  woman  had  every 
right  to  look  for.  Very  nearly  three-fourths  of  all 
the  teachers  in  the  United  States  are  women,  yet  the 
highest  prizes  in  the  profession  are  still  largely  re 
served,  and  jealously  reserved  for  men.  This  is  a 
condition  which  the  women  naturally  object  to  and 
which  cannot  continue  much  longer,  the  palpable  in 
justice  of  it  being  too  great.  And,  in  the  long  run, 
the  democratic  sense  of  the  people  refuses  to  tolerate 
injustice. 

The  desire  for  education  among  women  is  genuine 
and  startling.  It  not  only  manifests  itself  in  the 
attendance  at  the  institutions  designed  expressly  and 
exclusively  for  them  and  in  their  resorting  to  those 
colleges  and  universities  where  co-education  is  the 
rule;  it  is  also  visible  in  the  fact  that  the  majority 
of  listeners  at  public  courses  are  women.  Among 
the  educational  agencies  which  have  done  so  much, 
and  are  still  doing  so  much  for  the  intellectual  ad- 

188 


WOMAN 

vancement  of  the  Americans,  and  which  include  the 
press  as  well  as  the  schools  and  universities,  the 
lecture  platform  must  be  counted  as  one  of  the  most 
important.  The  people  generally  are  anxious  to  be 
informed  on  many  subjects,  and  in  the  remote  coun 
try  districts  as  in  the  populous  cities,  the  lecturer 
is  a  welcome  guest,  bringing,  as  he  does,  the  food 
ardently  craved  by  the  American  mind. 

Now,  at  public  lectures,  the  much  larger  portion 
of  the  audience  is  invariably  composed  of  women. 
Not  women  attracted  by  a  passing  curiosity,  al 
though  no  doubt  there  are  some  of  that  class,  but 
women  earnest  in  their  desire  to  acquire  further  in 
formation  and  instruction,  women  who  feel  the  need 
of  mental  food,  and  who  gladly  avail  themselves  of 
the  opportunities  put  in  their  way.  In  the  large 
cities,  the  audiences  thus  gathered  are  among  the 
most  interesting  which  a  lecturer  can  meet.  Appre 
ciative,  quick  to  respond,  able  to  follow  the  develop 
ment  of  the  theme,  keen  in  their  criticism,  and,  on 
the  whole,  sound  in  their  judgment,  it  is  a  pleasure 
and  a  stimulus  to  speak  before  them.  It  is  the 
women,  as  has  already  been  said,  who  in  great  meas 
ure  contribute  to  the  esthetic  culture  of  the  race. 
It  is  on  them  that  it  mainly  depends  and  will  continue 
to  depend  until  the  "nobler"  sex  can  afford  to  spare 
some  of  the  time  devoted  to  the  providing  of  daily 
bread  or  the  acquisition  of  wealth  to  the  pursuit  of 
other  things. 

That  there  are  results  of  this  eagerness  for  knowl 
edge  not  entirely  satisfactory  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  Pedantry  and  affectation  make  their  appearance 

189 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

as  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  cult  of  knowledge. 
The  "wearisome  woman"  is  far  from  being  unknown 
to  the  public  lecturer,  but  she  is  after  all  a  minute 
minority.  The  bulk  of  the  women  who  attend  the 
public  lectures  are  sincerely  anxious  to  obtain  in 
formation,  and  that  not  for  the  purpose  of  parad 
ing  it,  but  simply  in  order  to  broaden  their  minds, 
to  quicken  their  understanding,  to  enable  themselves 
to  better  appreciate  and  understand  the  problems  of 
life  with  which  they  are  continually  in  contact,  to 
make  themselves  worthier  companions  of  their  hus 
bands,  their  brothers,  their  sons,  their  friends. 

And  they  succeed ;  of  that  there  is  not  the  remotest 
doubt.  The  average  American  woman  can  talk  in 
telligently  on  just  the  subjects  which  interest  the 
"lords  of  creation,"  and  she  talks  with  a  vivacity  and 
a  grace  and  a  charm  which  recall  the  legendary 
women  of  the  French  salons  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries. 

The  young  American  girl  is  different  from  her 
European  sister ;  she  is  more  independent,  more  self- 
reliant,  more  defiant  of  conventions  and  traditions. 
She  is  the  fruit  of  the  society  from  which  she  springs, 
in  which  she  has  been  educated,  in  which  she  has 
learned,  from  childhood,  to  be  independent  and  to 
think  for  herself.  She  is  not  the  European  type ; 
she  is  unlike  the  French  jeune  file  or  the  English 
maiden;  she  very  often  lacks  the  peculiar  sweetness 
which  marks  the  latter;  she  has  not  the  retenue  of 
the  former.  But  she  cannot  be  like  them;  she  be 
longs  to  a  different  race  and  has  felt  other  influ 
ences.  She  is  the  American  girl,  able  to  take  care 

190 


WOMAN 

of  herself,  impatient  of  domination,  full  of  the 
sense  of  her  right  to  equality  with  all  men,  and 
prepared  to  make  her  own  way  in  the  world  if  need 
arise. 

She  has  inspired  the  journalist,  the  novelist,  the 
illustrator ;  she  has  furnished  the  world  with  a  new 
emanation  of  woman,  distracting  in  many  respects, 
singularly  attractive,  distinctly  different,  wildly  ad 
mired  by  many,  reproachfully  considered  by  some;  a 
being  combining  the  winsomeness  of  the  English  girl 
with  the  startling  novelty  of  her  own  land.  That  is 
the  type ;  there  are  many  varieties  of  it,  and  also,  it 
must  be  said,  every  American  girl  one  meets  does  not 
come  up  to  the  model.  But  there  are  very  many  who 
do,  and  the  rest  approach  it  as  closely  as  they  may. 
Among  the  refined  and  well-bred,  the  type  produces 
results  absolutely  bewildering  in  their  charm ;  among 
the  less  educated  and  less  refined,  it  creates  an  air  of 
style  which  is  itself  very  taking. 

This  is  due,  in  part,  to  the  prevailing  repetition 
of  modes  in  cheaper  forms.  All  women,  no  matter 
what  their  rank  in  the  social  scale,  wear  about  the 
same  cut  of  garments,  and  follow  the  same  fashions. 
There  is  no  dress  distinctive  of  rank  or  district  for 
there  is  no  distinction  of  rank,  and  all  districts  are 
permeated  by  the  influence  of  the  department  store 
and  the  wholesale  houses  which  turn  out  "costumes" 
in  millions.  The  materials  differ,  but  the  general 
effect  of  them  is  the  same.  And  the  spreading  of 
the  most  recent  modes  by  the  press,  for  the  Sunday 
paper  especially  devotes  much  attention  to  the 
Woman's  Page,  enables  the  girl  in  any  part  of  the 

191 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

country  to  imitate  her  richer  and  more  fortunate 
sisters. 

Nor  is  she  held  back  by  any  Old  World  idea  of 
convention,  of  certain  fashions  being  suited  to  the 
town  and  others  to  the  country :  she  boldly  appropri 
ates  them  all,  and  turns  out  attired  in  the  latest 
style  to  meet  her  swain  or  to  attend  service.  And 
the  effect,  in  the  cities,  at  any  rate,  is  satisfactory. 
The  effort  to  be  stylish,  smart,  calls  out  in  the  girl 
qualities  that  else  would  be  uncultivated.  There  are 
painful  and  regrettable  results,  at  times,  and  the 
love  of  dress  is  too  powerful  with  some,  but  on  the 
whole  it  is  pleasant  to  see  the  neatness  and  trimness 
of  the  innumerable  women  who  flock  in  the  streets, 
who  issue  from  the  lofty  office  buildings,  who  emerge 
in  hundreds  from  the  stores.  The  general  care  of 
the  person  is  noticeable,  and  that  attention  to  per 
sonal  appearance  is  not  without  its  beneficial  effect 
upon  the  mental  attitude  of  the  woman. 

One  feels  continually,  in  the  United  States,  the 
truth  of  the  great  principle  of  opportunity  offered 
to  all ;  one  feels  it  in  the  case  of  women  as  in  that  of 
men.  It  is  intelligible  how  a  girl  who  has  begun  life 
in  a  factory  can  rise  to  be  a  woman  of  society,  in 
the  wide  sense  given  to  that  word  in  that  country. 
In  the  atmosphere  of  freedom  in  which  she  lives,  the 
American  woman  develops  and  expands.  She  has 
the  consciousness  that  no  rank  is  beyond  her  reach, 
and  if  there  be  frivolous  women  there  as  elsewhere, 
there  are  certainly  more  who  take  life  seriously  and 
look  upon  it  as  something  to  be  used  to  the  utmost. 
That  is  because  there  is  no  strong  class  tradition  to 

192 


WOMAN 

hold  woman  down,  and  if  men  have  benefited  by  the 
fact,  women  are  equally  improving  under  it. 

The  European  misses  many  things  to  which  he  is 
accustomed;  he  is  offended  by  many  manifestations 
of  a  spirit  unlike  the  spirit  of  his  land ;  he  cannot 
stomach,  very  often,  the  independence  and  freedom 
which  continually  obtrude  upon  him  in  manifestations 
very  apt  to  be  unpleasant  at  first,  and  he  is  often 
inclined  to  criticize  sharply  the  attitude  and  man 
ners  of  the  American — and  at  times  with  justice. 
But  these  offensive  demonstrations,  which  the  truest 
Americans  regret  and  blame,  are  no  more  than  the 
inevitable  consequence  of  the  transition  from  a  con 
dition  of  practical  subjection  and  inferiority  to  a 
state  of  freedom  and  equality.  The  more  the  posi 
tion  of  woman,  the  more  her  status  in  society  rises, 
the  less  will  these  points  obtain  the  importance  they 
not  infrequently  have  at  present.  The  change  is 
great,  and  it  is  bound  to  affect  some  unfavorably,  as 
every  change  does. 

The  Marchioness  of  Rambouillet  and  the  ladies 
who  frequented  her  celebrated  salon  called  down 
upon  themselves  the  animadversion  and  ridicule  of 
their  contemporaries ;  the  greatest  of  comic  writers 
poured  upon  them  a  flood  of  fun  and  sarcasm,  care 
fully  selecting  the  shafts  that  would  tell  most  surely, 
yet  the  influence  of  the  Marchioness  is  now  recog 
nized  to  have  been  one  of  the  great  civilizing  and 
refining  forces  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
crusade  she  led  has  had  results  that  have  proved  last 
ing,  and  it  is  the  same  with  the  change  now  taking 
place  in  the  United  States  among  women:  it  will 

193 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

surely  manifest  itself  one  of  the  most  beneficial  not 
to  women  alone  but  to  men  as  well,  for  in  our  modern 
society  the  greater  the  respect  for  women,  the  higher 
their  position,  the  better  the  men  are.  The  influ 
ence  of  woman  can  but  ameliorate  many  conditions 
yet  requiring  reform,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  in 
teresting  of  the  many  interesting  topics,  this  of  the 
growth  of  the  movement  for  the  equality  of  woman  in 
every  respect.  The  fears  entertained  by  some — by 
many,  it  may  as  well  be  conceded — that  the  further 
emancipation  of  the  sex  will  prove  harmful  to  both,  is 
not  borne  out  by  history.  Nowhere  has  the  uplift 
ing  of  woman  borne  evil  fruits  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  wherever  she  has  been  and  is  kept  in  subjection 
or  in  a  state  of  distinct  inferiority,  the  results  are 
invariably  harmful  to  man  himself. 

In  the  end,  there  is  no  loss  of  womanliness  in  the 
education  of  women  and  in  the  fitting  of  them  to 
take  their  place  by  the  side  of  their  brother  man 
rather  than  beneath  him.  The  virtues  and  the  pe 
culiar  qualities  of  woman  do  not  appear,  to  an  ob 
server  in  the  land,  to  have  been  diminished  or  de 
stroyed  by  the  development  of  the  intellectual  facul 
ties  or  by  the  raising  of  the  social  and  political 
standard  of  the  sex.  They  are  inherent  in  woman, 
and  have  found,  in  the  United  States,  as  in  Eng 
land,  expression  in  works  meritorious  in  every  re 
spect.  All  that  has  been  accomplished  by  women 
in  the  old  country  and  in  the  new  speaks  loudly  in 
their  favor.  Benevolent  institutions  are  most  deeply 
indebted  to  them,  and  may  owe  their  very  existence 
to  them.  They  have  had  great  influence  upon  the 

194 


WOMAN 

Development  of  education  along  sensible  lines;  they 
possess,  in  many  States,  the  right  to  vote  for  mem 
bers  of  the  school  boards,  and  are  eligible  themselves 
to  serve  upon  these  administrative  bodies.  All  that 
interests  the  home,  the  family,  the  morals  of  the  com 
munity,  has  attracted  them,  and  their  interest  in 
these  questions  has  been  of  the  most  practical  char 
acter.  They  have  already  proved  their  ability  and 
their  intelligence ;  no  one  need  fear  that  in  the  fur 
ther  progress  of  the  sex  to  the  inevitable  perfection 
of  equality  the  finest  qualities  of  woman  will  suffer. 
They  have  not  suffered  so  far,  as  anyone  truly  ac 
quainted  with  American  women  is  well  aware,  and 
there  is  no  possible  reason  for  imagining  that  recog 
nition  of  the  fact  that  the  uplifting  of  man  must  be 
concurrent  with  the  uplifting  of  woman  will  work 
harm  to  the  one  or  the  other.  The  United  States 
has  accomplished  wonders  in  many  ways ;  it  will 
yet  exhibit  to  the  world  a  community  in  which  no 
distinction  is  made  between  the  sexes  in  respect  of 
all  natural  rights,  as  it  already  offers  the  cheering 
spectacle  of  a  land  where  class  distinctions  find  it 
impossible  to  obtain  a  real  foothold  and  to  repress 
the  just  ambition  of  the  citizen  of  every  degree. 


XII 
THE  GOLDEN  CALF 

The  ancient  Hebrews  had  scarcely  made  their  exit 
from  the  land  of  Egypt  laden  with  the  spoils  of  their 
late  tyrants,  than  they  proceeded  to  give  a  public 
manifestation  of  a  characteristic  trait,  and  to  cele 
brate  joyfully  their  love  for  and  adoration  of  gold. 
The  dance  round  the  Golden  Calf,  the  false  god,  has 
remained  famous  in  history,  and  the  sarcastic  an 
tagonist  of  the  Semitic  race  finds  in  it,  even  to-day, 
a  weapon  against  the  much-maligned  and  ever-per 
secuted  Hebrew.  Yet,  in  all  fairness,  if  the  Jew  loves 
money  even  as  his  own  soul — which  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  since  it  has  been,  all  through  Christian 
times,  at  once  his  peril  and  his  protection — is  it  not 
plain  that  the  Christian  in  general  has  exhibited  and 
exhibits  now  an  equal  passion  for  the  precious  metal? 
The  very  motive  of  the  brutal  and  unjust  persecu 
tion  of  the  scattered  race  has  been  the  Christian's 
greed  of  gold;  and  as  he  found  it  more  convenient 
to  rob  the  Jew  than  to  earn  the  wealth  he  coveted, 
he  tortured,  burned  and  quartered  him  as  his  re 
ligious  fancy  suggested. 

The  American  of  to-day  dislikes  the  Israelite,  who 
flourishes  within  his  gates,  and  threatens  to  found  a 

196 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

New  Jerusalem  within  New  York  itself.  The  Amer 
ican  refuses  to  herd  with  the  Hebrew  in  the  vast 
caravanseries  whither  he  flocks  in  winter  as  in  sum 
mer.  He  proclaims  his  infinite  superiority  to  the 
accursed  race  of  Shylocks,  and  will  neither  eat  nor 
drink  with  the  members  thereof.  The  American  is 
a  Christian,  and  a  good  Christian  may  not,  in  his 
opinion,  mingle  with  the  descendants  of  David.  Be 
sides,  the  latter  are  such  bitter  rivals  in  the  race  for 
wealth.  They  push  themselves  in  everywhere;  they 
control  banks ;  they  "run"  great  department  stores ; 
they  enter  the  directorates  of  companies ;  every 
where,  in  everything  they  manage  to  worm  their 
way.  There  is  not  a  form  of  business,  not  a  chance 
to  make  money  but  the  trail  of  the  Hebrew  is  over 
it  all.  Hence  the  distaste  is  intelligible.  No  man 
ever  loved  a  rival,  much  less  a  successful  rival,  and 
the  Hebrew  is  singularly  successful  in  the  United 
States. 

It  might  be  deduced,  from  this  antipathy,  so 
strong  that  it  compels  notice,  that  the  American  is 
not  a  money  lover;  that  it  is  his  repugnance  for  the 
coarseness  of  materialism,  for  the  crudity  of  fortune- 
making  which  impels  him  to  repel  the  Israelite. 
Alas !  it  is  not  so,  but  in  part,  jealousy.  For  the 
American  above  all  ideals  has  set  up  for  the  time 
the  acquisition  of  wealth  as  the  touchstone  of  suc 
cess.  In  Old  Europe  one  still  asks,  of  a  newcomer: 
"What  is  his  family?"  for  birth  and  connections  have 
not  lost  their  hold ;  but  in  America  it  is :  "What  is 
he  worth?"  Money  is  a  great  god  to  whom  the 
masses,  high  and  low,  bow  down  in  adoration.  Money 

197 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Is  the  scale  by  which  everything  is  measured.  To 
have  money,  or  to  appear  to  have  it,  is  the  aim  of 
numberless  Americans.  It  is  of  the  wealth  of  the 
country  in  general  and  of  the  individual  in  particular 
that  people  speak  first  and  most  of  the  time.  It  is 
the  utterly  wealthy  who  are  to  the  masses,  the  real 
heroes  of  the  national  legend  and  the  national  imag 
ination.  The  rich  man  holds  the  place,  in  the  mod 
ern  American  civilization,  which  the  greater  warrior 
held  in  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages;  the  press 
and  the  orator  and  the  demagogue  speak  of  the  coal 
baron,  of  the  trust  magnate.  The  very  titles,  er 
roneously  supposed  to  be  held  in  abhorrence  because 
they  were  used  to  designate  the  mighty  in  the  old 
lands  of  Europe,  are  employed  here  to  distinguish 
the  rich.  In  the  popular  mind  a  great  President,  a 
Washington,  a  Lincoln,  a  Roosevelt,  are  certainly 
men  to  be  proud  of,  and  they  are  spoken  of  with 
some  respect  and  admiration,  but  with  nothing  of 
the  fervor,  of  the  ardent  satisfaction  evoked  by  a 
"Jupiter"  Pierpont  Morgan,  a  Rockefeller,  a  Harri- 
man,  a  Vanderbilt  or  a  Gould.  The  ex-boss  Croker, 
who  has  steadily  and  consistently  refused  to  reveal 
the  origin  of  his  vast  fortune,  has  been  an  object  of 
envy  to  thousands.  If  they  only  knew  the  secret  for 
the  transmutation  of — what? — into  gold,  how  eager 
ly  they  would  apply  it!  Carnegie,  with  his  untold 
millions  and  his  libraries  carted  round  the  whole 
country,  attracts  men  of  "light  and  leading"  who 
would  not  turn  round  to  look  at  a  celebrity  of  less 
wealth. 

The  man  who  can  help  others  to  make  money  is  a 
198 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

benefactor;  he  can  always  have  his  court  of  adula 
tors  and  flatterers.  Let  him  be  an  inventor,  who  dis 
covers  new  applications  of  the  secrets  of  nature  to 
the  industries  of  the  country,  or  a  speculator,  bold, 
venturesome,  loud-tongued — no  matter,  the  people 
will  flock  after  him,  for  he  holds,  or  they  think  he 
holds,  the  key  to  the  treasure  house.  Every  "get- 
rich-quick"  scheme,  however  preposterous,  however 
evidently  a  swindle,  attracts  thousands  and  thou 
sands.  This  is  not  confined,  it  is  true,  to  the  United 
States,  for  everywhere  and  at  all  times  men  have 
coveted  riches,  but  it  is  more  markedly  the  case  there 
than  anywhere  else.  In  vain  does  the  more  serious 
portion  of  the  press  warn  the  public  against  these 
enterprises ;  in  vain  does  the  government  invoke  the 
aid  of  law  to  check  them;  they  continue  to  flourish 
because  public  opinion  is  back  of  them,  because  pub 
lic  and  private  greed  are  leagued  together  to  foster 
them,  because  most  men  long  with  all  the  strength 
of  their  nature  to  acquire,  quickly,  easily,  wealth  and 
yet  more  wealth. 

And  wealth  is  needed  to  maintain  the  appearances 
of  wealth.  Money  must  be  found  in  some  manner  or 
other  to  enable  the  free  and  independent  American 
to  enjoy  all  the  luxuries,  all  the  pleasures  which  civil 
ization  is  continually  evolving.  The  poorest  devil 
must  have  his  automobile,  for  the  rich  have  theirs, 
and  it  would  not  be  seemly  that  they  alone  should 
enjoy  the  new  mode  of  transportation  and  excite 
ment.  Mortgage  and  credit  are  taxed  to  the  utmost 
to  satisfy  the  ambition  to  seem  richer  than  one 
really  is ;  to  give  the  impression  of  plutocracy.  The 

199 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

clerk  and  the  shop-girl  out  for  the  day  must  have  the 
outward  air  of  glorious  luxury  and  splendid  envir 
onment.  Nothing  less  than  the  best,  or  what  resem 
bles  the  best,  will  satisfy  even  the  man  whose  income 
plainly  forbids  indulgence  in  aught  but  the  cheap  and 
ugly.  All  must  at  least  appear  to  stand  on  the  same 
plane;  there  can  be  no  outward  token  of  difference 
between  members  of  the  same  commonwealth,  and  if 
thrift  and  honesty  suffer  in  carrying  out  this  cher 
ished  ambition,  at  all  events  personal  desire  for  show 
is  satisfied. 

For  thrift  and  honesty  are  often  swamped,  in  the 
mad  struggle  for  money,  and  in  the  rivalry  for  ex 
ternal  seeming  of  riches.  Dishonesty  is  rampant, 
and  not  a  day  passes  but  the  press  announces  yet 
another  defalcation,  yet  another  bankruptcy,  yet  an 
other  embezzlement,  yet  another  theft.  The  trusted 
head  of  an  institution  turns  out  to  be  a  scoundrel, 
and  no  one  is  particularly  surprised;  the  president 
of  a  bank  is  discovered  to  have  made  away  with  its 
funds  and  to  have  betaken  himself  to  a  foreign  clime — 
no  one  is  startled,  for  the  occurrence  is  far  from  be 
ing  an  uncommon  one ;  the  honored  director  of  some 
religious  society  dies,  and  it  is  found  that  he  has  dis 
sipated  its  funds,  leaving  widows  and  orphans  to 
want.  These  things  are  not  extraordinary ;  they  are 
commonplaces  of  life  in  the  United  States.  The 
courts  and  the  police  have  innumerable  examples  of 
them  coming  daily  within  their  ken,  and  yet  others 
are  hushed  up,  covered  and  concealed.  Men  want 
money,  want  it  badly,  and  take  any  steps  that  sug 
gest  themselves  to  obtain  it.  Honesty,  as  the  word  is 

200 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

understood,  has   suffered   a  singular  eclipse  in  the 
hustling  life  of  the  present. 

American  ingenuity  is  famous  in  the  arts  and 
sciences ;  it  should  be  more  famous  yet  in  the  art 
and  science  of  making  money  somehow.  For  no 
where  has  the  process  been  more  sedulously  culti 
vated;  nowhere  has  it  been  carried  to  such  a  pitch 
of  perfection — nefarious  perfection  too  often. 
Studied  with  infinite  pains,  it  produces  results  that 
amaze  the  older  world  and  delight  the  inhabitants 
of  the  new,  who  see  in  this  a  further  testimony  to 
their  superiority  to  the  effete  nations  of  Europe. 
It  is  not  an  enviable  superiority.  Rascals  and  sharp 
ers  abound  in  the  Old  World,  and  dishonest  men  and 
fraudulent  bankrupts  are,  unhappily,  far  from  un 
known.  But,  at  least,  there  is  not  the  glamor  of 
success  attached  to  their  names  and  their  records. 
A  scoundrel  is  a  scoundrel  in  the  Old  World;  in  the 
New  he  is  very  apt  to  be  termed  simply  a  "mighty 
smart  man."  The  fact  that  a  man  has  stolen  a  very 
large  sum  of  money  is  taken  by  the  gold-hungry  as 
a  proof  of  his  talents ;  they  are  talents,  no  doubt, 
but  not  of  the  kind  that  in  a  decent  community 
should  win  any  form  of  praise.  There  are,  it  should 
in  justice  be  said,  not  only  a  very  great  majority  of 
absolutely  honest  men  in  the  country,  but  also  very 
many  papers,  that  set  their  face  against  the  applause 
too  willingly  and  too  freely  bestowed  on  the  success 
ful  rascal.  There  is  a  portion  of  the  press  which 
steadfastly  refuses  to  honor  the  scoundrel,  no  mat 
ter  how  large  his  stock  of  millions,  which  strives 
with  might  and  main  to  imbue  the  public  with  a 

201 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

clearer  conception  of  right  and  wrong,  and  which 
preaches  the  doctrine  that  there  cannot  be  one  mor 
ality  for  the  successful  plunderer  on  a  large  scale 
and  for  the  petty  pilferer  whom  the  police  courts 
send  unhesitatingly  to  prison. 

But  it  is  very  difficult  for  that  portion  of  the 
press  and  that  leaven  of  honest  men  to  make  headway 
against  the  tremendous  force  of  the  influences  at 
work  to  debauch  and  corrupt  the  public  and  the 
private  conscience  alike.  Corruption  is  rife  every 
where.  It  is  met  with  in  public  institutions,  where 
it  breeds  under  the  most  favoring  conditions ;  it  is 
found  in  municipal  government,  which  has  been  de 
clared  by  one  of  the  leading  observers  and  thinkers 
in  America  to  be  a  standing  failure;  it  is  encum 
bered  in  the  State  government  and  State  legislatures, 
which  are  notoriously  subject  to  the  influence  of 
money ;  and  it  finds  its  way  even  into  the  depart 
ments  of  the  Federal  Government,  where  it  preys 
upon  the  resources  of  the  nation. 

Money  is  power,  and  the  power  acquired  by  money 
is  ruthlessly  used  to  acquire  greater  wealth.  Not 
all  the  types  of  gold-hoarding,  gold-loving  misers 
which  the  genius  of  writers  has  ever  evolved,  ap 
proach  the  types  of  money-seeking  and  money-get 
ting  men  who  have  attained  fame  and  fortune  in  the 
United  States.  The  most  astounding  ingenuity  is 
manifested  in  the  framing  of  schemes  destined  to  en 
rich  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  The  trusts 
have  swollen  to  such  proportions  that  they  have  be 
come  a  menace  to  law  and  order,  and  threaten  the 
very  existence  of  the  democratic  principle  itself. 

202 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

The  noble  old  ideals  of  the  American  commonwealth 
have  been  sadly  shattered  during  this  recent  period. 
The  freedom  which  the  Constitution  guarantees  to 
every  man  has  been  turned  into  a  mockery  so  hollow 
that  none  are  now  to  be  deceived  by  it.  The  pluto 
crat  has  become  an  aristocrat  and  a  tyrant ;  he  looks 
on  himself  as  a  being  above  the  law,  and  not  Louis 
XIV  himself,  in  the  proudest  days  of  his  absolute 
monarchy,  entertained  and  expressed  greater  belief 
in  himself  or  held  in  greater  certainty  the  subjection 
of  all  men  to  him. 

Money  is  worshiped  in  every  land;  in  the  United 
States  it  is  the  very  breath  of  life  to  a  great  number. 
It  is  sought  for  in  every  country;  in  America  the 
gold-hunger  is  developed  to  an  extent  that  appals 
the  observer.  Gold  has  become  the  god  of  a  part 
of  that  world,  and  to  obtain  it  there  are  men  who 
sacrifice  principle  and  honor  and  reputation.  Suf 
ficient  it  is  if  they  in  return  secure  some  share  of 
the  prosperity  which  through  misapplication  afflicts 
the  land,  and  saps  the  very  basis  of  the  national 
ideals. 

There  are  heard  voices  in  protest,  often  in  indig 
nant,  in  burning  protest  against  this  perversion  of 
a  thing  good  in  itself,  but  infinitely  bad  in  excess, 
but  these  protests  are  too  often  unheeded  and  un 
heard.  When  men  are  so  busy  "making  their  pile," 
they  have  neither  time  nor  attention  to  spare  for  the 
moralists,  the  patriots  who  would  warn  them  of  the 
consequences  of  this  madness.  Those  who  preach 
thrift  and  honesty  are  not  listened  to;  those  who 
proclaim  with  brazen  voices  that  they  possess  the 

203 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

secret  of  speedy  wealth  at  once  gain  a  hearing.  A 
man  goes  into  bankruptcy  and  emerges  better  off 
than  before;  he  has  shaken  off  his  creditors,  and 
starts  upon  a  new  course  of  money  making.  He  re 
peats  the  performance,  and  manages  to  obtain  credit 
and  business,  to  the  surprise  of  those  who  are  not 
aware  of  the  methods  employed  by  such  gentry.  In 
France,  bankruptcy  entails  dishonor;  in  America, 
in  spite  of  laws  framed  to  protect  the  honest  creditor, 
bankruptcy  does  not  place  a  stigma  on  the  man. 
There  are  those  who  have  twice,  yea,  thrice,  taken 
this  mode  of  escaping  their  obligations,  who  yet  are 
received,  dealt  with,  and,  after  a  fashion,  honored. 

That  money  is  often  used,  after  being  obtained  by 
means  not  too  savory,  for  beneficent  purposes,  is  a 
fact.  The  millionaire  who  has  ruined  thousands,  who 
has  wrecked  homes,  devastated  business,  driven  men 
and  women  to  despair,  and  even  to  suicide,  becomes  a 
public  benefactor,  and  distributes  with  lavish  hand 
large  sums  to  church  organizations,  to  colleges  and 
universities,  to  scientific  societies,  to  charitable  or 
ganizations.  He  is  lauded  for  his  generosity ;  decor 
ated  with  honorary  degrees  by  some  universities, 
which  rival  each  other  in  courting  his  favor;  ban 
queted  and  interviewed;  his  story  related  by  an  ob 
sequious  press,  which  glosses  over  the  incidents  of 
his  career;  he  is  sought  for  on  many  hands,  and  he 
feels  that  success  and  wealth  are  sure  opiates  for 
the  public  conscience.  But  that  money  has  not 
changed  its  origin  in  changing  its  destination.  What 
the  multi-millionaire,  enriched  at  the  expense  of 
thousands  of  impoverished  fellow-creatures,  thus  be- 

204 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

stows  upon  companies  of  men  and  women  who  believe 
themselves  high-minded,  is  not  of  his  necessity.  His 
benevolence  costs  him  nothing,  for  he  is  well  aware 
that  it  is  impossible  for  him,  however  lavish  and  ex 
travagant,  to  spend  upon  himself  all  the  gold  he  has 
squeezed  out  of  other  men's  pockets.  His  generosity 
is  forced,  in  a  way ;  the  money  has  to  be  got  rid  of ; 
it  cannot  go  on  accumulating  indefinitely ;  it  is  ever 
breeding  and  bringing  forth  more  money,  and  the 
simplest  plan  therefore  is  to  purchase  with  it  that 
consideration  and  honor  which  are  to  be  readily  ob 
tained  from  the  hungry  mob  ever  clamorous  for 
gold  and  gold  and  gold. 

He  need  not  fear  many  refusals :  there  are  few 
establishments  which  will  hesitate  even  for  an  in 
stant  to  accept  what  has  now  become  classic  under 
the  name  of  "tainted  money."  Gold  is  the  test  of 
manhood,  with  many  of  them ;  the  proof  of  superior- 

ity.     , 

Nor  are  the  churches  more  delicate  in  their  sense 
of  honor.  They  are  not,  as  a  rule,  members  of  that 
ancient  communion  which,  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
exploited  with  such  remarkable  skill  the  fears  of  the 
great  among  the  innumerable  company  of  sinners, 
and  thus  secured  the  building  of  cathedrals,  abbeys, 
priories,  monasteries,  the  endowing  of  all  these  in 
stitutions  with  large  grants  of  land  and  sums  of  no 
small  magnitude.  But  if  their  tenets  are  different  in 
matters  theological,  their  practice  in  matters  tem 
poral  is  substantially  similar.  They  do  not  hesitate 
to  sanctify  the  money  wrung  from  others  by  dedicat 
ing  it  to  what  they  are  pleased  to  term  the  service  of 

205 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

God.  So  long  as  it  is  into  their  treasury  that  the 
dollars  are  poured,  their  condemnation  of  usury  and 
theft  on  a  gigantic  scale  is  hushed.  They  have  no 
reproaches  for  the  man  who  enriches  them ;  they 
pray  for  him  and  laud  him  from  their  pulpits.  They 
will  never  be  at  a  loss  to  discover  in  him  all  the 
noblest  and  finest  qualities  of  human  nature,  and 
those  indications  of  something  essentially  and  pe 
culiarly  divine  which  may  be  translated  into  plain 
speech  as:  "He  has  given  us  a  lot!" 

Who  shall  wonder,  then,  with  these  examples  prom 
inently  brought  before  them,  that  the  bulk  of  the 
people  should  be  a  prey  to  a  consuming  thirst  for 
gold,  and  should  believe  in  all  good  faith  that  money 
surpasses  charity  itself  since  the  latter,  at  the  best, 
covers  only  a  multitude  of  sins,  while  money  covers 
every  one  of  them — and  does  more :  transforms  them 
into  virtues  and  meritorious  acts?  Who  can  feel 
surprise  that  dishonesty  is  encouraged  and  thrift 
condemned  when  the  lavish  use  of  gold,  obtained  by 
means  that  are  condemned  in  the  pilferer  and  lauded 
in  the  great  stealer,  bestows  upon  the  "benefactor" 
the  applause  of  institutions  of  learning  and  the  ad 
miring  blessings  of  the  company  of  the  pious?  If 
all  that  is  needed  in  order  to  secure  these  tangible 
evidences  of  well-doing,  evolved  from  evil-doing,  be 
to  perform  the  operations  of  fleecing  on  a  large 
scale,  who  can  wonder  that  men  should  essay  to  at 
tain  equal  distinction? 

It  is  in  innumerable  ways  that  this  absorbing  pas 
sion  for  the  making  of  money  manifests  itself  and 
that  the  worship  of  money  is  encouraged.  Pride  in 

206 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

the  fact  that  such  and  such  men,  multi-millionaires, 
are  inhabitants  of  a  particular  town  or  city  reveals 
itself  in  the  publication  of  their  names  on  every 
possible  opportunity.  The  stranger  who  is  being 
driven  about  the  place  to  see  the  sights  is  invariably 
informed  that  "here  lives  So-and-So,  one  of  the  rich 
est  men  in  this  section."  "And  here  dwells  another, 
who  made  his  pile  in  so  many  years,  and  is  now 
contemplating  entering  the  Senate,  for  he  has  the 
wherewithal  to  do  so."  "Here  is  the  present  home 
of  one  who  not  so  long  ago  lived  in  a  sort  of  shack, 
and  now  has  a  palace,"  the  architecture  of  which 
is  as  startling  as  the  owner's  rise  to  fortune.  The 
local  press  annually  publishes  the  list  of  "largest 
tax-payers,"  so  that  the  man  in  the  street  may  ap 
preciate  how  wealthy  are  the  residents  among  whom 
his  lot  is  cast.  Buildings  and  monuments  are  esti 
mated  not  at  their  esthetic  value,  often  considerable, 
but  at  their  pecuniary  cost.  Such  an  one  has  in 
volved  an  expenditure  of  one  million;  this  library 
cost  five  hundred  thousand  dollars ;  that  museum 
three  times  as  much;  this  schoolhouse  two  hundred 
thousand;  this  hotel  a  fabulous  sum;  this  statue, 
which  makes  the  artistic  grieve,  so  much. 

People,  especially  the  wealthy  lacking  in  sense  of 
the  fitness  and  proportion  of  things,  estimate  the  ar 
tistic  worth  of  any  production  simply  by  the  price 
the  dealer  puts  upon  it.  The  latter  can  tell  of  in 
numerable  instances  in  support  of  this  affirmation. 
A  superb  screen,  a  marvel  of  art,  was  refused  be 
cause  the  price  asked  for  it  did  not  satisfy  the  ex 
igencies  of  the  purchaser.  The  amount  of  money 

207 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

paid  would  not  impress  the  visitors  to  that  home 
of  "elegance  and  culture,"  and  therefore  an  ugly 
screen,  immediately  marked  up  mentally  to  half  as 
much  again,  was  substituted  and  eagerly  bought.  It 
is  the  cost  and  not  the  real  worth  of  the  object  which 
in  the  United  States  as  elsewhere,  indeed,  appeals 
to  the  man  desirous  of  showing  off,  of  making  his 
neighbors  believe  him  one  of  the  elect.  The  vulgar 
display  of  diamond  rings,  diamond  studs,  diamond 
scarf  pins  is  but  an  outcome  of  that  longing  for 
show  of  wealth  which  pervades  more  particularly  the 
unbred  and  ill-educated  class,  still  the  most  numerous 
one  in  the  land.  But  it  is  more  or  less  apparent  in 
all  stratas  of  American  society,  and  the  loud  osten 
tation,  the  lavish  exhibition  of  glittering  jewelry  is 
to  be  noticed  in  the  most  "aristocratic"  as  in  the 
most  plebeian. 

When  the  late  President  McKinley  uttered  his  dic 
tum  that  what  is  cheap  is  nasty,  he  expressed  the 
inmost  belief  of  countless  thousands  of  his  fellow- 
Americans.  Lavishness  and  extravagance,  the  pay 
ing  of  absurd  prices  for  what  is  not  worth  a  fourth 
of  the  money;  these  are  habits  now  strongly  im 
planted  in  the  character  of  the  majority  of  the 
people,  and  it  will  take  time  to  eradicate  them  and  to 
substitute  saner  views  of  wealth  and  a  conception  of 
the  value  of  thrift  and  simplicity. 

The  delight  in  squandering  money  is  universal. 
The  very  institutions  of  learning  are  not  free  from 
it.  It  is  visible  in  the  habits  of  the  schoolboys  and 
schoolgirls,  of  the  students  in  the  colleges  and  uni 
versities.  In  the  pursuit  of  sport  it  is  manifest: 

208 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

money  is  the  one  great  object,  and  the  sport  itself  is 
made  subsidiary  to  the  gate  receipts.  The  teams  are 
thriftless  and  extravagant;  for  years  the  sums  ex 
pended  in  the  annual  training  of  a  small  number  of 
football  players  in  all  the  great  universities,  but 
notably  in  Harvard  and  Yale,  attained  proportions 
so  great  that  at  last  even  public  opinion  was  aroused 
against  a  system  which  distorted  sport  and  athletic 
sporting  into  a  school  for  profuse  expenditure  and 
luxurious  habits.  The  very  essence  and  principle  of 
sport  disappeared,  and  men  strove  for  superiority 
not  for  the  sake  of  generous  emulation  and  friendly 
competition,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  large  income 
obtained  from  a  public  eager  to  see  the  costly  teams 
matched  one  against  the  other.  The  price  for  ad 
mission  rose  steadily,  until  it  acquired  proportions 
which  fairly  staggered  the  believer  in  athletics,  and 
prevented  the  ordinary  man  from  gratifying  his  de 
sire  to  witness  a  clean  struggle  between  two  bands 
of  high-spirited  and  honest  young  fellows.  The 
speculator  was  prompt  to  avail  himself  of  the  chance 
offered  him,  and  he  reaped  a  golden  harvest  from 
the  multitude  which,  because  the  price  of  admission 
was  high,  at  once  longed  to  behold  the  contest.  It 
was  not,  and  is  not,  in  very  many  cases,  any  interest 
in  the  sport  itself  which  causes  the  vast  crowds  to 
crush  at  the  entrance  gates :  it  is  the  feeling  that  a 
high-priced  entertainment  cannot  be  omitted  from 
the  list  of  enjoyments  of  the  universally  wealthy 
American. 

The  close  of  the  school  career  is  also  made  an  oc 
casion  for  show  and  expenditure.     The  children  of 

209 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

people  in  less  than  moderate  circumstances  must 
cut  a  dash  then,  if  they  never  do  so  again,  and  all 
manner  of  costs  are  heaped  upon  the  parents.  The 
girls  must  have  graduation  dresses,  in  which  fitness 
and  simplicity  and  inexpensiveness  are  to  have  no 
part;  class  pins  must  be  purchased,  class  photo 
graphs  taken,  flowers  provided,  and  every  element  of 
ostentation  and  display  must  enter  into  the  feast 
day,  else  would  the  girl  feel  herself  disgraced  and 
distanced  by  her  fellows. 

Instances  of  this  excessive  love  of  display  might  be 
repeated  endlessly.  But  to  what  end?  Anyone,  any 
native  of  the  country,  can  sum  them  up  for  himself. 
The  evil  is  patent,  widespread,  growing.  It  has  at 
tracted  the  attention  of  press,  pulpit  and  public.  It 
is  an  inevitable  consequence  of  certain  causes  still  at 
work,  but  which  will  not  always  be  as  powerful  as 
they  are  at  present.  It  is  an  ugly  side  of  society  as 
constituted  in  the  United  States ;  it  is  not  necessarily 
a  permanent  evil,  and  the  day  will  come  when  men  and 
women  will  leave  to  that  small  minority  which  is  de 
void  of  brains  and  possessed  of  money,  the  con 
temptible  part  of  displayers  of  wealth  and  bad  taste. 
Even  now  hopeful  signs  are  evident :  a  sense  of  fitness 
is  leading  very  many  to  carefully  avoid  display; 
women,  with  an  instinctive  sense  of  what  is  becoming, 
are  eschewing  the  wearing  of  jewelry  at  all  hours, 
or  of  splendid  toilets  at  all  seasons.  They  are  learn 
ing  to  proportion,  to  distinguish,  to  select,  and  the 
result  is  as  gratifying  to  them  as  it  is  to  the  esthetic 
observer.  They  are  beginning  to  set  themselves 
apart  from  the  vulgar  affectation  of  gorgeousness, 

210 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

and  betaking  themselves  to  that  sweet  simplicity 
which  is  unattainable  by  the  mass.  The  man  of  taste 
is  becoming  more  frequent,  and  his  dress  marks  him 
out  from  the  vulgar  and  cheap  dandy. 

The  signs  of  reaction,  it  has  been  said,  are  already 
evident.  The  reaction  is  stronger  and  deeper  than 
most  persons  suspect.  Wealth  is  beginning  to  lose 
its  glamor,  to  suffer  a  diminution  of  its  power  to 
blind  and  dazzle.  There  is  a  tendency  to  apply  to 
the  rich,  to  the  plutocrat  in  particular,  the  universal 
test  of  fitness  and  worth.  In  the  press,  in  private 
conversation,  one  notes  a  changing  point  of  view :  the 
rich  man  does  not  invariably  command  respect  be 
cause  he  is  rich;  he  is  being  subjected  to  criticism, 
frequently  adverse  and  biting;  his  methods  are  be 
ing  condemned ;  his  expenditures  scrutinized ;  his  lav- 
ishness  and  extravagance  derided.  Not  quite  so 
easily  as  of  yore  does  he  obtain  attention ;  not  so 
readily  does  he  sin  against  the  proprieties.  Men  are 
awaking  to  a  truer  perception  of  the  real  place 
wealth  should  hold  in  a  democratic  community ;  they 
are  beginning  to  appreciate  the  dangers  which  its 
over-accumulation  and  its  selfish  administration  nec 
essarily  entail.  They  are  becoming  more  exacting, 
and  in  the  right  direction. 

No  longer  do  they  accept  the  plutocrat  at  his  own 
estimate;  they  weigh  him  in  the  balance  themselves, 
and  are  not  surprised  often  to  find  him  wanting.  The 
public  press  reflects,  guides  and  fosters  this  healthful 
condition;  it  attacks  fearlessly  the  merely  rich  who 
presumes  upon  his  gold  to  violate  every  canon  of  de 
cency  and  honesty.  It  is  beginning  to  preach  a 

211 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

sounder  economic  gospel,  and  with  its  tremendous  in 
fluence  it  is  bound  to  have  a  profound  effect  upon 
opinion.  All  the  press  does  not  do  this;  many 
papers  are  still  in  the  thrall  of  the  worship  of  the 
Golden  Calf,  but  the  number  of  those  which  have 
asserted  their  independence  increases  steadily. 
There  will  always  be,  in  so  vast  a  country  as  the 
United  States,  and  among  so  mixed  a  population, 
flatterers  of  the  merely  rich,  but  the  sound  sense  of 
the  American — an  invaluable  quality  apt  to  assert 
itself  in  a  manner  most  disconcerting  to  those  who 
have  forgotten  or  neglected  it — may  be  relied  upon  to 
correct  the  worst  abuses.  A  public  opinion  is  being 
formed;  a  sound  opinion  well  directed,  well  enlight 
ened,  and  with  the  power  behind  it  that  comes  of 
education,  of  morality,  of  disinterestedness,  of  true 
patriotism.  No  one  need  despair  of  the  Republic: 
the  true  ideas  are  manifesting  themselves  and  will  as 
suredly  gain  the  upper  hand  in  time.  For  it  takes 
time  to  alter  habits  and  to  inculcate  new  views  of 
life.  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,  and  a  fever  leaves 
the  patient  weak  for  a  season.  Democracy  has  suf 
fered  from  the  tremendous  prosperity  of  the  land  and 
its  inhabitants,  and  its  vital  principle  has  been 
checked  to  some  extent;  but  it  is  vital,  and  will,  be 
yond  peradventure,  sway  the  masses  as  now  it  sways 
the  small  number  of  clear-sighted  and  right-thinking 
men. 

The  plutocrats,  the  multi-millionaires  themselves 
are  getting  glimpses  of  the  light.  More  than  one 
among  them  is  endeavoring  to  solve  the  problem  of 
the  righteous  administration  of  riches.  Sons  and 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

daughters  of  men  who  amassed  their  wealth  in  ways 
which  morality  condemns,  while  the  law  is  helpless 
to  punish,  have  abandoned  the  attempt,  and  wisely 
abandoned  it,  to  solve  the  vexed  question  of  how 
to  undo  the  evil  wrought  by  their  sires.  The  evil  is 
done,  and  can  never  be  undone.  The  dramatist  and 
the  novelist  may,  in  the  free  use  of  their  imagination, 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  effect  they  can  draw  from 
a  good  situation,  make  the  plunderer  restore  to  his 
victims  the  money  he  once  bereft  them  of;  but  in 
the  real  life  of  the  present  day  such  a  course,  how 
ever  poetic  and  ideally  just,  is  practically  impossi 
ble.  It  is  for  the  inheritors  of  that  ill-gotten  wealth 
to  win  forgiveness  for  deeds  in  which  they  had  no 
share  by  just  and  wise  use  of  the  millions  they  have. 
And  they  are  trying  to  make  such  use  of  it,  and  are 
giving  themselves  to  the  task  with  singleness  of  pur 
pose  and  devotion  and  earnestness.  They  are  doing 
good  where  those  who  went  before  did  nil ;  they  can 
not  heal  the  wounds  that  were  made,  they  cannot 
bind  up  the  hurts  that  were  inflicted,  they  cannot 
give  back  the  lives  that  have  been  sacrificed,  but, 
feeling  their  responsibilities,  they  are  putting  forth 
every  effort  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  those  around 
them,  to  bring  a  little  sweetening  into  unhappy  lives, 
to  diminish  the  sum  of  poverty,  and  therefore  of 
crime. 

Setting  thus  before  a  public  whose  intense  curios 
ity  is  ever  awake  an  example  of  the  wise  and  gener 
ous  use  of  riches,  they  are  largely  contributing  to  the 
better  appreciation  of  the  real  use  of  vast  fortunes 
and  tending  to  diminish  the  hatred  and  jealousy  ex- 

213 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

cited  by  the  sight  of  colossal  wealth  obtained  by 
methods  that  will  not  always  bear  examination. 
They  are  teaching  the  other  rich  that  they  have  a 
duty  to  the  community,  and  that  immense  fortunes 
involve  responsibilities  other  than  squandering  and 
show.  Above  all,  they  are  making  manifest  that  the 
democratic  spirit  is  quite  consonant  with  wealth, 
and  may,  indeed,  tend  to  a  clearer  understanding  of 
the  way  to  apply  it  for  the  general  good  and  not 
alone  for  the  private  benefit  and  advantage  of  its 
possessors. 

There  is  abundant  proof  of  this.  All  the  great 
fortunes  in  the  United  States  have  not  been  made 
by  unfair  means,  by  oppression,  by  extinction  of 
competitors,  by  methods  that  startle  men  when 
chance  discovers  them.  Economy,  carefulness,  abil 
ity,  perseverance,  have  borne  fruit  there  as  here 
and  rightly  and  justly  so.  If  there  are  establish 
ments,  colossal  hives  of  men,  where  they  are  ruth 
lessly  exploited,  there  are  many  where  the  life  of 
the  working-man  and  working-woman  is  pleasant 
and  fortunate.  If  there  are  unscrupulous  seek 
ers  after  wealth,  there  are  more  upright  and 
just  toilers  both  among  the  employers  and  the  em 
ployed. 

And  the  use  made  of  fortunes  is,  as  a  rule,  not  in 
the  way  of  wild  extravagance  and  senseless  ostenta 
tion,  though  much  of  both,  as  already  said,  exists; 
but  in  that  of  benefit  to  the  public.  It  was  said  the 
other  day  in  one  of  our  papers  that  no  appeal  ever 
goes  unheeded  in  Great  Britain,  and  that  large  as 
are  the  amounts  subscribed  to  any  given  purpose, 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

sums  as  large  and  larger  are  immediately  forthcom 
ing  with  the  advent  of  a  new  call  for  aid. 

That  is  absolutely  true,  and  in  addition  it  must 
be  remembered  that  there  is  an  infinite  number  of  in 
stitutions  in  this  country  depending  wholly  or  in 
large  part  upon  private  beneficence,  the  beneficence 
of  the  rich  public,  and  of  the  moderately  well  off. 
There  are  no  statistics  to  show  the  total  amount  thus 
dispensed  year  by  year,  nor  need  there  be.  The 
habit  of  generous  giving  is  ingrained  in  the  British 
people,  and  it  is  as  deeply  seated  in  the  Amer 
ican. 

In  the  United  States  as  here  countless  benefactions 
remain  unknown  save  to  the  beneficiaries ;  gifts  are 
made  that  the  press,  quick  as  it  is  to  discover  what 
ever  is  being  done  or  said,  never  suspects.  There 
the  left  hand  is  kept  quite  as  much  in  ignorance  as  it 
is  with  us. 

Of  the  gifts  made  for  public  purposes  the  list  is 
unending.  Let  one  series,  one  class  of  these  serve 
as  an  illustration  of  the  splendid  bounty  of  the 
American.  The  universities  and  colleges  are  espe 
cially  singled  out  by  benefactors,  many  of  whom 
have  and  have  had  no  connection  with  the  institution, 
while  others  are  graduates  who  thus  testify  to  their 
enduring  love  for  their  Alma  Mater.  In  one  univer 
sity  only,  that  of  Harvard,  the  funds  annually  avail 
able  in  the  form  of  scholarships  and  bursaries  for 
undergraduates  amount  to  over  $75,000.  In  the 
Graduate  School  of  Arts  and  Sciences  the  fellowships 
amount  to  nearly  $40,000.  And  one  gift  of  $55,000 
is  to  be  added  to  that.  These  are  two  departments 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

only;  the  other  schools  are  not  forgotten,  though 
naturally  the  gifts  to  them  are  on  a  less  liberal  scale. 

Then  there  are  the  gifts  from  the  classes,  that  is 
from  the  body  of  students  graduated  in  any  one  year. 
These  classes  establish  a  fund  which,  after  a  certain 
term,  is  handed  over  to  the  University.  Most  of  the 
buildings  of  the  University  are  gifts,  some  from 
known,  some  from  anonymous  donors.  And  what  is 
true  of  Harvard  is  true  of  Yale,  Columbia,  Cornell, 
Princeton,  and  the  many  other  establishments  of 
learning. 

As  for  institutions  for  research,  for  the  alleviation 
of  pain,  for  the  succor  of  the  distressed,  for  the  pro 
motion  of  laudable  social  purposes,  the  promotion  of 
the  realization  of  high  ideals ;  they  are  simply  in 
numerable.  But  they  do  not  obtrude  themselves 
upon  the  attention  of  the  passing  visitor;  they  are 
not  advertised,  and  consequently  their  very  existence 
is  unsuspected  by  the  stranger  who  is  soon  weary  of 
the  colossal  skyscrapers  and  the  magnificent  rail 
way  stations  in  New  York.  Yet  they  exist,  and  are 
more  deeply  significant  of  the  mind  of  America 
than  one  is  apt  to  perceive  at  first. 

There  is  that  form  of  benefaction  which  hides  it 
self,  which  one  learns  of  by  accident,  and  it  is  wide 
spread.  All  the  love  of  gold  does  not  make  every 
American  its  slave,  and  ostentation  is  as  repugnant 
to  thousands  as  it  is  dear  to  many.  The  infinitely 
sweet  practice  of  giving  is  practiced  with  a  skill 
and  a  consideration  for  the  beneficiary  which  draws 
out  the  best  in  the  heart  of  those  privileged  to  know 
of  it 


THE    GOLDEN    CALF 

The  hospitality  of  the  Americans  is  genuine.  It 
is  quite  true  that  it  is  at  times  overpowering  in  its 
profuseness,  but  it  would  be  a  capital  mistake  to 
suppose  that  the  lavishness  and  beauty  which  so 
often  mark  it  are  the  outcome  of  a  desire,  even  if 
unconscious,  to  brag,  to  exhibit  the  wealth  and 
liberality  of  the  entertainer.  Undoubtedly  there  are 
such  entertainments  and  the  press  duly  records 
them,  since  the  object  would  not  be  attained  were 
not  due  publicity  secured.  But  to  assume  there 
fore  that  all  American  hospitality  is  but  a  manifes 
tation  of  vainglory  would  be  to  fall  into  serious 
error. 

The  American  hospitality  has  for  its  mainspring 
a  real,  sincere  and  strong  desire  to  treat  the  stranger 
within  the  gates  to  the  best  of  everything.  The 
American  does  not  inform  the  guest  that  house  and 
contents  are  his,  which  is  only  a  grandiloquent  way 
of  speaking  which  deceives  no  one,  the  profferer 
least  of  all.  The  American  actually  puts  himself 
and  his  at  the  service  of  his  guest.  He  wants  him 
to  have  the  "best  of  times,"  to  see  everything,  do 
everything  and  feel  that  he  is  thoroughly  welcome. 
The  dainty  luncheon,  the  splendid  dinner,  are  in 
honor  of  the  guest,  and  it  is  to  do  him  honor  and 
not  to  vaunt  or  make  vulgar  display  that  everything 
is  choice,  everything  luxurious. 

American  hospitality  is  on  a  large  and  generous 
scale,  but  what  makes  it  true  hospitality  is  that  it 
is  sincere.  The  welcome  is  no  perfunctory  phrase,  it 
is  genuine. 

Americans  do  love  money;  they  have  that  in 
217 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

common  with  the  rest  of  the  civilized  races  of  the 
earth.  They  also  know  how  to  use  it  wisely  and 
generously.  They  do  not  all  worship  the  Golden 
Calf :  they  do  make  the  Almighty  Dollar  their 
servant. 


XIII 
ART 

One  of  the  traits  which  strike  the  dweller  in  the 
land  more  than  the  swiftly  touring  visitor  is  the 
curious  lack  of  perception  of  true  proportion  and 
true  value.  The  American,  especially  in  the  press, 
very  often  in  books,  and  constantly  in  conversation, 
appears  to  attribute  a  wholly  erroneous  importance 
to  mere  size  and  mere  costliness.  The  latter,  of 
course,  may  be  referred  to  the  excessive  worth  which 
wealth  has  secured  for  itself  in  popular  opinion,  but 
the  admiration  for  bigness  in  itself  can  scarcely 
be  thus  accounted  for.  Partly,  perchance,  it  is  due 
to  the  vast  extent  of  the  country;  partly,  to  the 
juvenile  habit,  now  being  shaken  off,  of  vaunting 
everything  American  in  order  to  impress  the  hearer 
and  beholder  alike.  But  allowing  largely  for  this, 
it  does  not  explain  the  peculiarity,  the  cause  of 
which  seems  rather  to  be  a  lack  of  a  sense  of  real 
proportion,  combined  with  a  wrong  standard  of 
value. 

There  are  wonderful  things  in  the  United  States, 
materially  and  intellectually,  and  the  average  man 
is  perfectly  ready  to  admire  them  as  they  deserve 
to  be  admired;  but  more  is  required  of  him:  he 

219 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

must  own,  nay,  he  must  proclaim  aloud,  he  must  cry 
and  spare  not,  that  these  things  are  unrivaled,  un- 
approached,  because  they  are  the  biggest  things  of 
their  kind.  That  is  the  wrong  view;  it  is  in  this 
way  that  the  erroneous  standard  of  value  manifests 
its  influence.  These  wonders  of  the  New  World  are 
admired  by  the  intelligent  man  not  because  they  are 
huge,  big,  great,  unusual,  but  because  they  are  char 
acteristic,  typical,  informing,  revealing  the  spirit 
and  genius  of  the  race,  exhibiting  the  results  of 
widely  different  conditions  from  those  which  pre 
vail  in  the  Old  World. 

At  present  there  is  not,  in  the  whole  of  the  United 
States,  a  single  erection  which  matches  the  Eiffel 
Tower  in  height.  But  it  is  not  the  height  of  that 
tower  which  has  nearly  reconciled  the  art  world  of 
Paris  to  its  presence:  it  is  the  art  in  it,  and  the 
science  in  it,  and  the  skill  to  which  it  bears  testi 
mony.  The  Eiffel  Tower,  which  has  a  great  beauty 
of  its  own,  attracts  attention  not  because  it  is  so 
lofty:  that  is  one  part,  but  a  part  only,  of  the  spell 
it  exercises ;  its  main  charm  comes  from  its  elegance, 
and  from  the  triumph  of  engineering  skill  which  it 
typifies.  The  mere  material  side  does  not  win  praise ; 
the  ideal  does.  The  thought  which  conceived  and 
carried  out  the  project,  and  gave  to  the  finished 
work  the  lightness  and  the  grace  which  are  now  visi 
ble,  that  is  what  one  thinks  of  in  contemplating  the 
springing  web-work  of  iron  and  steel. 

The  American  skyscraper  is  a  much,  and  wrongly, 
abused  emanation  of  the  national  genius.  It  deserves 
abuse,  all  the  abuse  it  meets  with  and  more  yet,  when 

220 


ART 

one  is  invited  to  marvel  at  it  because  it  is  composed 
of  so  many  superimposed  stories ;  because  in  its  con 
struction  so  many  tons  of  steel  and  stone  and  con 
crete  have  entered;  because  it  is  simply  higher  than 
any  of  its  predecessors.  These  considerations  have 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it  as  an  expression  of 
the  American  spirit.  Height  is  to  be  met  with 
everywhere;  quantities  of  material  are  swallowed 
up  in  innumerable  constructions ;  buildings  may  be 
lofty  and  vast,  yet  remain  absolutely  expressionless, 
wholly  meaningless.  The  mere  height  of  the  sky 
scraper,  the  mere  addition  of  floor  above  floor,  does 
not  confer  upon  the  building  any  distinction  what 
ever.  What  makes  the  towering  office  building  pro 
foundly  interesting  is  the  fact  that  it  is  the  solution 
of  a  problem  of  modern  life,  and  that  in  evolving 
the  solution  the  architect  has  evolved  at  the  same 
time  a  typical  form,  which  is  possessed  of  beauty 
in  its  own  right.  The  skyscraper  is  representative 
of  American  life,  which  is  mainly  commercial  and 
industrial.  It  speaks  at  once  to  the  mind  of  the 
man  who  beholds  it  for  the  first  time ;  it  is  significant 
of  a  civilization  entirely  different,  in  its  radical  as 
pects,  to  the  civilization  of  Europe,  where  tradition 
causes  the  retention,  in  so  many  cases,  of  forms  out 
worn  and  ideas  long  since  grown  old. 

The  wealthy  American  builds  himself  town  houses 
recalling  the  palaces  of  Italy;  country  homes  in 
imitation  of  the  chateaux  of  France  and  the  stately 
homes  of  England ;  but  he  does  not  perceive  that 
these  are  and  must  remain  imitations.  They  do  not 
embody  the  American  genius ;  they  merely  suggest — 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  how  imperfectly  often — the  genius  of  a  foreign 
country  and  of  a  vastly  different  epoch.  But  when 
he  comes  to  erect  a  business  building,  then  the 
American  launches  into  a  field  he  has  made  peculiarly 
his  own  and  in  which  he  scores  triumph  after  tri 
umph.  He  then  realizes  in  stone  and  steel  and 
concrete  the  essential  idea  of  his  civilization,  and  the 
result  is  a  construction  unmatched  in  the  Old  World, 
and  profoundly  American,  and  therefore  with  a 
beauty  and  a  truth  that  are  evident  and  satisfying. 
To  draw  attention  to  the  size  of  the  building  is  to 
draw  the  attention  away  from  the  real  value  of  the 
monument;  the  height,  the  slenderness,  the  soaring 
appearance  of  the  upper  tiers ;  these  are  but  parts 
of  the  whole,  not  the  one  thing  which  makes  it  re 
markable  and  admirable.  The  lofty  office  building 
is  interesting  because  it  is  an  office  building,  and  one 
destined  to  meet  certain  conditions.  It  expresses  a 
deep  idea,  just  as  the  old  medieval  fortresses  and 
the  cathedral  express  even  now  a  state  of  civiliza 
tion  and  a  state  of  mind  which  have  disappeared. 
The  skyscraper  is  an  impossibility  to  the  wildest 
imagination  if  placed  in  fancy  in  the  Middle  Ages ; 
the  cathedral  and  the  medieval  fortress  are  equally 
impossible  nowadays.  People  build,  at  great  ex 
pense,  churches  on  wm'jh  they  lavish  ornament,  and 
they  call  them  cathedrals ;  technically  they  are  such ; 
in  reality,  in  very  sober  truth,  they  are  not.  The 
day  of  the  genuine  cathedral  passed  away  long  ago, 
and  all  the  present  generation  can  do  is  to  imitate 
the  expression  of  a  deep  faith  which  is  not  to  be  met 
with  in  the  special  character  it  then  had.  But  the 

222 


ART 

skyscraper  is  the  triumphant  and  genuine  and  sin 
cere  expression  of  the  American  genius  in  commerce 
and  business.  It  is  a  true,  a  genuine  manifestation 
of  a  very  present  and  very  living  faith,  which  is  not 
religious  faith,  but  is  faith  all  the  same.  In  this 
respect  the  lofty  building  has  its  value;  not  in  the 
cost,  not  in  the  quantity  of  material,  but  in  the  out 
ward  and  visible  expression  which  it  is  of  the  feeling 
of  a  civilization. 

Even  in  the  inability  of  the  architect  to  make  the 
exterior  of  his  building  beautiful  and  satisfactory  to 
the  esthetic  taste — and  the  skyscraper  is  often  la 
mentably  ugly — is  typified  that  general  absence  of 
artistic  feeling  which  is  noted  in  America. 

Unquestionably  this  statement  will  provoke  indig 
nant  protest.  A  country  whose  inhabitants  spare 
no  money  when  it  is  a  question  of  acquiring  master 
pieces  by  artists  whose  names  have  become  famous 
the  world  over ;  a  country  where  ornament  flourishes 
lavishly  upon  all  manner  of  constructions  and  erec 
tions  ;  a  country  which  is  considered  by  Europeans 
to  be  rapidly  stripping  the  galleries  and  residences 
of  the  Old  World  of  their  most  cherished  treasures, 
is  and  must  be  a  country  where  the  feeling  for, 
and  the  understanding  of,  art  are  highly  developed 
and  thoroughly  characteristic. 

Yet,  modestly,  humbly,  regretfully,  the  statement 
is  adhered  to. 

The  sense  of  beauty  is  not  a  characteristic  of 
the  American  people ;  it  is  not  evident ;  it  exists 
among  individuals,  that  goes  without  saying,  but 
the  people  as  a  whole  are  devoid  of  it.  And  this 

223 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

is  seen  even  among  cultured  persons.  There  is  the 
study  of  art ;  there  is  collecting  of  masterpieces ; 
there  is  reproduction  of  others  by  means  of  casts, 
copies  and  photographs,  but  all  that  does  not 
involve  the  existence  of  a  sense.  A  single  look  at 
an  American  city  suffices  to  convince  one  that 
beauty  in  itself  is  not  sought  for,  either  in  the 
ensemble  of  the  city  or  in  the  particular  or  indi 
vidual  buildings.  There  are  handsome  buildings ; 
but  they  are  in  a  minority.  Not  only  that,  but 
they  are  side  by  side  with  erections  that  cause  one 
to  shudder. 

A  pure  democracy  is  not  favorable  to  the  develop 
ment  of  high  artistic  sense.  The  mass  in  a  democ 
racy  has  vulgar  tastes,  which  does  not  mean  coarse 
tastes,  but  vulgar,  ordinary,  of  low  standard.  The 
mass  has  not  the  appreciation  of  beauty,  although  it 
flatters  itself  that  it  is  a  judge  of  beauty.  It  knows 
it  not ;  it  does  not  understand  it ;  does  not  perceive 
it  when  it  beholds  it.  The  mass  has  its  own  concep 
tion  of  what  beauty  is,  and  that  conception  is  pro 
foundly  erroneous.  In  a  country  where  the  mass  is 
continually  sending  up  recruits  into  the  ranks  of  the 
patrons  of  art,  there  is  but  one  result  to  be  looked 
for :  the  domination  of  the  bourgeois  idea  of  art  and 
of  beauty.  And  that  is  precisely  what  one  sees  in 
the  United  States.  Gorgeousness  and  expensiveness 
abound,  but  they  are  not  beauty;  size  and  vastness 
are  continually  forced  upon  one,  but  they  do  not 
constitute  beauty.  And  the  fact  that  these  are  the 
points  on  which  stress  is  laid,  from  which  gratifica 
tion  is  derived,  proves  of  itself  the  contention  that 


ART 

the  artistic  sense  is  not  part  and  parcel  of  the 
American  intellectual  make-up. 

Consider  most  of  the  railway  stations  in  the 
United  States:  those  at  the  great  termini.  How 
many  of  them  are  anything  but  ugly?  There  are 
some  where  signs  of  improvement  are  visible,  and 
there  are  now  two  in  New  York  which  stand  out 
superbly;  but  take  the  general  run  of  them.  Take 
Boston,  the  City  of  Culture  par  excellence,  and  con 
template  its  North  Station  and  its  South  Station ! 

Or  rather  don't! 

Travel  along  the  lines  of  railway  through  the 
country;  travel  between  the  points  which  form  the 
great  centers  of  population  and  activity,  and  every 
where,  on  either  hand,  before,  behind,  the  most  ex 
quisite  scenery  is  defaced,  debased,  degraded,  de 
stroyed  by  an  efflorescence  of  commercialism,  for  it 
is  commercialism  and  not  art  which  is  most  typical 
of  the  United  States  in  the  present  day.  Enter 
the  homes  of  many  of  the  rich,  and  barbaric  splen 
dor  appalls,  but  the  true  art  sense  is  more  conspicu 
ous  by  its  absence  than  by  its  presence.  There  are 
everywhere  evidences  of  wealth,  but  the  testimonies 
of  art  sense  are  infrequent.  It  is  only  when  the 
expression  of  the  remarkable  industrial  and  scientific 
skill  manifests  itself  that  unconsciously  the  art  sense 
comes  to  the  front.  And  not  even  then  always,  for 
how  many  bridges,  for  instance,  are  simply  ugly ! 
How  many  marvels  of  genius  merely  hideous ! 

The  truth  is  the  Americans  have  not,  any  more 
than  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  innate  feeling  for  art. 
They  cultivate  it  with  praiseworthy  perseverance; 

225 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

they  spend  large  sums  in  the  pursuit  of  it;  they 
collect  with  indefatigable  earnestness  specimens  and 
masterpieces ;  they  gather  together  and  exhibit  in 
museums  and  galleries  exquisite  gems ;  they  pur 
chase,  even  the  poorer,  photographs  and  casts,  and 
adorn  their  dwellings  with  them;  but  they  have  not 
the  natural  appreciation,  the  genuine  apprehension, 
of  the  beauty  which  lies  hidden  to  the  eye  of  the  un 
trained,  of  the  unendowed.  Side  by  side  with  beau 
tiful  things  they  unhesitatingly  place  appalling  hor 
rors,  and  they  never  suspect  what  they  have  done. 
The  one  and  the  other  are  equally  satisfying;  they 
constitute  Art  for  them.  Art  is  a  commodity  like 
candy  or  ice-cold  soda;  everyone  can  understand  it, 
and  apply  it,  and  enjoy  it.  There  does  not  occur  to 
them  the  thought  that  some  races  have  the  artistic 
feeling  and  others  lack  it,  and  that  they  belong  to 
the  latter  class. 

"Money  can  do  anything,"  consequently,  it  can 
produce  art.  But  that  is  the  error.  It  does  not; 
it  produces  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  helps  the  artist, 
but  the  artist  has  to  be,  first  and  foremost,  and  by 
the  side  of  the  artist  must  be  the  public  capable  of 
appreciating  his  work,  and  finally  there  must  be  the 
artistic  atmosphere,  and  that  is  not  found. 

The  ideal  has  not  been  pursued  by  the  Americans, 
save  in  matters  political,  and  even  in  these  they 
have  somewhat  fallen  away  from  the  ardent  love  of 
it  which  was  characteristic  of  the  early  days  of  the 
Union.  Or,  more  correctly  speaking,  the  problems 
have  multiplied  so  fast  and  have  become  so  pressing 
that  it  has  not  been  possible  to  obtain  as  rapidly 


ART 

and  as  completely,  results  such  as  the  optimist  nat 
urally  looks  for.  But  in  the  realm  of  the  ideal 
properly  so  called,  they  have  made  but  few  incur 
sions.  They  have  not  produced  a  great  poet,  a 
great  musician,  a  great  painter,  essentially  Ameri 
can — for  Sargent  is  French,  in  large  measure,  Euro 
pean;  a  great  sculptor,  for  Saint  Gaudens  is  French 
too  in  his  inspiration  and  training.  Their  love  of 
these  things  is  not  an  essential  part  of  their  nature, 
of  their  make-up ;  it  is  usually  added  on,  cultivated, 
often  painfully  and  with  much  trouble.  The  desire 
is  there,  but  it  is  not  nationally  realized. 

The  explanation  of  the  fact  may  be  found  in  the 
changed  conditions  and  in  the  lines  which  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  have  been  practically  com 
pelled  to  follow.  Neither  Greece  nor  Italy,  the 
Italy  of  the  Renaissance — both  of  which  countries 
have  given  the  world  such  marvelous  realizations  of 
the  ideal — were  situated  exactly  as  the  United 
States.  A  glance  at  the  map  of  the  country,  a  re 
membrance  of  the  astonishingly  rapid  growth  of  the 
Republic,  a  recalling  of  the  swift  progress  in  all 
matters  material,  industrial,  commercial ;  of  the  tre 
mendous,  unceasing  immigration  which  has  con 
tinued  to  bring  into  the  country  thousands  and 
millions  of  strangers  who  have  had  to  be  molded 
into  citizens ;  the  discoveries  of  illimitable  natural 
resources  and  springs  of  wealth — these  conditions 
are  entirely  different  from  those  of  the  Grecian 
states  or  of  the  Italian  republics  and  principalities 
where  art  flourished  and  created  the  marvels  which 
even  now  stand  as  the  highest  types  of  the  beautiful. 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

"In  the  days  when  Art  was  still  religion,"  said 
Longfellow.  And  the  American  poet  showed  thus 
that  he  clearly  perceived  the  impelling  motive ;  a 
motive  which  has  not  existed  and  does  not  now 
exist  in  the  United  States.  Art,  with  the  Greek 
and  the  Italian,  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  expres 
sion  of  his  national  life :  of  his  religion ;  of  his  belief, 
ingrained,  vital.  The  sense  of  beauty,  the  striving 
after  the  ideal,  the  seeking  after  the  perfection  of 
form,  the  manifesting  in  marble  or  metal  or  color 
the  wonders  beheld  by  the  spiritual  eye — these  are 
not  and  have  not  been  elements  of  the  American 
character.  It  is  not  because  the  early  settlers  had 
to  contend  with  the  Redskins,  later  with  the  outer 
foe,  later  still  with  one  another,  when  the  country 
had  become  consolidated  and  was  again  on  the  verge 
of  disruption;  it  is  not  because  the  state  of  war — 
on  a  small  scale — was  upon  them.  The  Greeks  and 
the  Italians  were  far  more  continuously  engaged  in 
warfare,  foreign  and  internecine,  than  ever  were  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  yet  Art  grew  and 
flourished  exceedingly  among  them,  and  the  bloody 
quarrels  of  factions  within  the  cities,  the  rivalries 
and  the  bickerings  and  the  jealousies,  the  fighting 
within  and  fears  without,  never  for  a  day  stayed 
the  progress  and  development  of  the  esthetic  sense 
and  its  manifestation  in  wondrous  masterpieces. 
The  poets  sang  with  clear  voice  songs  that  are 
immortal;  the  musicians  made  their  strains  heard; 
the  architects  created  styles  and  reared  impos 
ing  monuments;  the  sculptors  drew  inspiration 
from  the  past  and  the  present;  the  whole  intellec- 

228 


ART 

tual  and  artistic  life  was  rich,  abundant,  varied, 
superb. 

But  in  the  United  States  nothing  comparable 
has  yet  been  seen,  and  while  it  is  customary  to  speak 
of  the  country  as  young,  it  is  that,  only  relatively 
to  the  older  civilizations  of  Europe.  And  the  civil 
ization  of  the  country  was  not  itself  young;  it  was 
the  most  highly  developed  civilization  of  the  time, 
the  civilization  of  Europe  which  was  translated 
here.  It  had  not  to  emerge,  as  that  of  the  Old 
World,  slowly  and  with  difficulty  from  the  ruins  of 
an  older  one,  swept  almost  completely  away  by  the 
floor  of  Northern  invasion.  It  had  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  being  made  ready  to  hand  for  the  pur 
poses  to  which,  under  new  and  different  conditions, 
it  was  to  be  applied.  It  was  an  adaptable  civiliza 
tion  ;  one  that  was  susceptible  of  accommodating  it 
self  to  the  altered  situation — and  it  did  so  adapt 
itself.  It  was  not,  then,  from  lack  of  knowledge, 
of  intelligence,  that  the  esthetic  sense  did  not  assert 
itself  in  the  New  World;  the  cause  was  different. 

The  civilization  which  was  transplanted  to  the 
shores  of  New  England,  to  the  coasts  of  Virginia  and 
Carolina,  was  the  Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  and  the 
informing  spirit  of  it  was  Liberty,  not  Art.  It  was 
in  the  pursuit  of  liberty  that  the  Pilgrims  sought 
the  shores  of  Massachusetts  in  bleakest  winter,  not 
in  search  of  the  beautiful  in  nature.  Their  whole 
mind  was  set  on  things  spiritual  and  political,  not 
on  things  esthetic.  These,  indeed,  were  rather  ab 
horred  by  them.  The  detestation  of  the  forms,  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  a  Church  that  had  retained,  even 

229 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

after  the  Reformation,  some  traces  of  the  sensual 
ism,  of  the  estheticism  of  the  Roman  worship,  was 
not  calculated  to  lure  them  to  cultivation  of  the 
beautiful  for  its  own  sake.  It  was  the  beauty  of 
the  soul  which  they  hungered  for ;  the  beauty  of  the 
body,  the  loveliness  of  nature  spoke  not  to  them. 
And  as  their  spirit,  as  their  ideals  spread — and  all 
who  have  even  a  superficial  knowledge  of  American 
history  know  how  rapid  was  that  spreading — so 
spread  their  lack  of  estheticism,  their  want  of  the 
sense  of  the  beautiful  in  matters  other  than  politics 
and  religion — and  a  purely  spiritual  religion  at 
that. 

Afterward  came  the  marvelous,  sudden  develop 
ment  of  the  commerce  and  industries  of  the  land, 
turning  the  minds  of  men  toward  wealth  and  profit, 
and  not  toward  art.  So  the  great  bulk  of  the 
people  set  wealth  first ;  they  do  so  now,  and  to  them 
anything  artistic  is  but  an  emanation,  a  manifesta 
tion  of  the  possession  of  riches.  They  purchase 
paintings  and  statuary  because  these  are  accepted 
in  the  Old  World  as  tokens  of  riches ;  because  the 
more  remarkable  products  of  the  studio  can  become 
the  property  of  the  rich  only,  not  because,  in  many, 
many  cases,  the  owner  has  the  remotest  sense  of  the 
real  value,  the  art  value,  of  the  objects  which  adorn 
his  house  and  which  find  themselves  in  odd  conjunc 
tion  with  the  ugly  and  the  commonplace. 

The  American  stock  is  Anglo-Saxon,  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  has  not  the  art  sense,  the  art 
power,  to  the  same  extent  as  the  Latin  race.  This 
does  not  mean  that  England  has  not  produced  art- 

230 


ART 

ists  of  great  worth,  but  that  the  fundamental  love 
for  and  understanding  of  art  is  not  an  element  of 
the  character  of  the  race.  Nor  is  it  an  element 
of  the  American  character  as  constituted  at  the 
present  time.  Whether  it  will  enter  into  that  char 
acter  as  the  mingling  of  races  goes  on,  as  the  influ 
ence  of  the  innumerable  Latins  coming  into  and 
settling  upon  the  land  makes  itself  felt — as  it  must 
do  in  the  course  of  time — is  a  question  to  which, 
at  this  moment,  it  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impos 
sible,  to  give  an  answer. 

There  will  arise  an  American  art,  that  goes  with 
out  saying;  an  art  which  will  incarnate  and  mani 
fest  the  ideals  of  the  new  race,  but  it  is  not  in  the 
least  likely  that  it  will  bear  much  relation  to  what 
Europeans  are  accustomed  to  call  by  that  name. 
That  is,  the  sources  of  inspiration  will  necessarily 
be  different,  and  if  it  be  possible  to  conciliate  the 
ideal  and  the  practical  in  poetry,  in  music,  In  paint 
ing,  in  sculpture — which  it  is  permissible  to  doubt — 
then  American  art,  when  it  has  found  itself,  will 
probably  develop  along  these  lines.  American  archi 
tecture  already  exists,  and  it  is  not  that  of  the 
Congressional  Library,  nor  the  buildings  of  Columbia 
University,  nor  of  the  numerous  Capitols  and  State 
Houses  throughout  the  land — that  is  an  art  copied 
and  often  very  badly  copied  from  that  of  Europe — 
but  an  American  architecture  which  will  be  mainly 
industrial,  commercial,  residential  in  its  application. 

The  French  influence  is  likely  to  be  the  strongest 
in  shaping  this  development,  and  naturally  so,  for 
there  is  much  intellectual  kinship  between  the  pres- 

231 


AMERICANS   AND    THE    BRITONS 

ent-day  American  and  the  Frenchman.  Further,  the 
influence  of  French  art,  with  its  lightness,  its  grace, 
its  thoroughness,  is  exactly  what  the  Americans 
need.  The  French  race  is  eminently  an  idealistic 
race,  while  it  is  also  exceedingly  practical.  But  the 
idealistic  prevails,  and  that  is  where  the  American, 
in  art,  is  just  now  deficient.  To  him  art  is  still 
the  handmaid  of  industry,  of  wealth ;  it  is  not,  or  is 
scarcely,  cultivated  and  sought  after  for  its  own 
sweet  sake.  The  Frenchman  loves  art  for  art's  sake ; 
for  the  sake  of  the  intimate  intellectual  joy  it  gives 
to  its  votaries,  and  that  is  one  of  the  reasons  why 
the  Frenchman  is  so  singularly  successful  in  com 
bining  the  artistic  and  the  practical.  He  has  man 
aged  to  overcome  in  large  measure  the  countervail 
ing  influence  of  the  bourgeois,  and  he  has  educated 
all  classes  in  an  innate  love  of  the  beautiful. 

This  is  what  is  needed  in  the  democratic  United 
States,  where  the  love  of  art  in  all  its  forms  is  aca- 
idemic  rather  than  genuine.  They  are  sincere 
enough,  are  the  Americans,  in  their  worship  of  art; 
they  are  quite  in  earnest  in  their  pursuit  of  musical 
knowledge;  they  are  really  anxious  to  understand 
and  appreciate  the  value  of  painting  and  sculpture ; 
their  attention  is  easily  drawn  to  the  rich  and  beau 
tiful  in  applied  art,  as  witness  the  collections  in 
their  museums  and  in  private  homes.  But  for  all 
that  the  impression  is  strong  that  the  feeling  is  not 
a  natural  one;  that  it  is  in  great  part  artificial; 
that  they  pursue  the  study  and  cultivate  the  love 
of  art  in  all  its  manifestations  because  they  feel  that 
as  Americans  they  cannot  afford  to  neglect  what 


ART 

has  cast  such  glory  over  Europe  and  has  inspired 
so  many  writers  and  singers.  Art  is  not  a  vital 
principle  of  life  in  the  United  States;  it  is  an  ac 
complishment,  an  added  grace  which  money  can 
secure.  There  are  schools  for  the  teaching  of  art, 
and  many  pupils  attend  them.  There  are  number 
less  exhibitions  of  painting  and  sculpture ;  there  are 
competitions  in  architecture;  there  are  students  of 
landscape  gardening;  in  a  word,  every  effort  is 
made  to  prove  to  themselves  and  to  the  world  that 
Americans  are  as  superiorly  endowed  artistically  as 
they  are  in  other  respects,  yet  the  whole  effect  is  an 
effort,  and  thus  a  proof  in  itself  of  the  lack  of 
spontaneity  of  the  artistic  sense. 

It  is  strange,  at  first  sight,  that  the  country  has 
not  yet  given  birth  to  a  great  poet.  America  has 
none  at  present.  Yet  it  is  not  for  lack  of  subjects 
inspiring  enough.  The  face  of  nature  is  wondrously 
fair  in  the  United  States;  scenery  as  grand,  and 
grander  than  that  of  Europe  meets  the  traveler  at 
every  turn;  scenes  almost  as  sweet  and  pastoral  as 
those  of  England  are  met  with  continually;  yet  no 
poet  has  sung  the  beauties  of  the  American  land 
scape  in  a  way  to  rivet  the  attention  of  his  country 
men  and  to  arrest  that  of  the  foreigner.  The  history 
of  the  country  has  much  that  is  epic  in  it:  the  War 
of  Independence,  the  fortitude  of  Washington,  the 
War  of  Secession,  the  figures  of  Lincoln,  of  Lee 
are  such  as  to  inspire  a  singer,  yet  they  have  evoked 
no  responsive  song.  There  are  writers  who  have 
addressed  themselves  to  the  task  of  depicting  the 
life  of  the  people,  and  who  have  succeeded  admira- 

233 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

bly  in  revealing  the  vast  fund  of  interest  that  lies 
therein.  They  have  brought  out  with  strong  or 
tender  touch  the  force  and  the  gentleness  of  the 
national  character,  and  have  reproduced  the  types 
evolved  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  The  power 
is  there,  one  cannot  help  feeling.  The  ability  exists ; 
the  springs  of  inspiration  are  numerous  enough 
and  abundant  enough,  but  the  seekers  after  the  beau 
ties  of  poetry  are  few  and  far  between. 

That,  no  doubt,  is  because  these  things  are  not 
sufficiently  practical  to  interest  the  average  Ameri 
can.  Fiction  appeals  to  him  as  a  restful  form  of 
reading,  but  in  fiction  he  requires  and  demands  much 
action.  Description  bores  him,  and  he  skips  it  with 
a  mighty  skip;  analysis  of  character  wearies  him, 
and  he  leaves  it  unread.  The  authors  quickly  learn 
what  the  public  prefers,  and  as  their  object,  in  the 
main,  is  to  gain  reputation  and  solid  reward,  they 
indulge  the  public.  There  are  a  few  who  delve 
deeper  and  produce  works  so  sweet,  so  tender,  so 
true,  that  the  memory  of  them  lives  fragrant,  but 
they  are  the  exception,  not  the  rule.  The  part  of  the 
public  they  look  to  is  a  minority.  The  great  mass 
of  readers  want  excitement,  rush,  adventure,  and  to 
that  the  writers  are  consequently  inclined  to  sacri 
fice  everything  else.  As  a  result,  there  is  not  a  large 
quantity  of  really  artistic  work  in  fiction;  it  forms 
but  a  small  portion  of  the  tremendous  output  that 
goes  on  day  by  day.  It  exists,  but  it  is  not  the 
most  characteristic  feature  of  American  literature. 

Music  is  pursued  with  careful  attention  to  the  se 
lection  of  all  that  is  best  in  that  particular  field,  and 

234 


ART 

probably  there  is  no  place,  Germany  not  excepted, 
where  musical  criticism  flourishes  more  abundantly 
and  is  more  scientific  than  in  the  larger  cities  of 
the  United  States.  Two  or  three  orchestras  of  more 
than  ordinary  excellence  perform  the  works  of  the 
greatest  composers,  the  works  of  the  living  as  of  the 
dead,  and  vast  audiences  religiously  follow,  intent  on 
not  missing  one  of  the  finer  points — about  which 
they  have  learned  from  the  careful  analysis  placed 
in  their  hands  as  they  entered  the  hall.  They  ap 
plaud  correctly,  at  times  warmly.  Externally  they 
are  all  that  a  musical  enthusiast  should  be:  atten 
tive,  respectful,  but  one  cannot  help  wondering, 
whether,  after  all,  music  is  really  in  the  American 
soul.  Liberal  patronage  of  high-priced  concerts 
and  most  expensive  grand  opera  is  not  in  itself 
a  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  musical  taste,  and 
somehow  one  misses  the  native  music;  one  does  not 
meet  with  it,  one  does  not  hear  it.  The  people,  in 
city  or  country,  do  not  break  out  into  melody,  save 
an  occasional  Moody  and  Sankey  hymn  or  a  ditty 
from  the  latest  musical  comedy,  which  is  not  infre 
quently  farcical  but  rarely  very  musical.  Music 
does  not  well  up  out  of  the  American  soul,  although 
the  American  ear  and  the  American  intellect  are 
intent  upon  it. 

Of  late  years  some  excellent  statues  have  made 
their  appearance  in  the  public  squares,  but  they  are 
far  from  compensating  for  the  multitude  of  terrors 
which,  as  in  our  dear  London,  even  yet  disfigure 
noble  avenues  and  fine  squares.  In  most  cities  there 
are  Art  Commissions,  charged  with  the  troublesome 

235 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

task  of  deciding  on  the  appropriateness — and  in 
some  centers,  on  the  morality — of  the  figures  or 
groups  offered  to  the  admiration  of  the  public. 
These  commissions  do  some  good,  but  to  their  pres 
ent  duties,  if  art  in  sculpture  is  really  to  be  en 
couraged,  should  be  added — with  unlimited  auto 
cratic  powers — the  duty  of  utterly  destroying  the 
dreadful  representations  of  the  human  form  which 
pass  for  memorials  to  the  honor  of  some  unfortu 
nate,  quite  helpless  to  avoid  the  perpetuation  of 
his  presentment. 

The  worst  proof  of  the  lack  of  real  sense  of  art 
in  the  United  States  is  the  way  the  streets  are  dis 
figured  and  the  scenery  in  the  neighborhood  of 
every  city  rendered  ugly  by  the  profuse  use  of  huge 
billboards,  although  they  are  rather  more  than 
that ;  they  are  vast  expanses  upon  which  the  coarsest 
and  crudest  illustrations  are  painted  in  staring 
color.  Nothing  is  more  exasperating  than  to  have 
these  flaring  advertisements  perpetually  thrust  at 
one,  and  nothing,  one  would  think,  could  be  more 
likely  to  induce  a  person  of  taste  from  ever  pur 
chasing  any  of  the  articles  so  vaunted.  They  are 
everywhere,  high  and  low;  in  the  best  quarters  as 
in  the  poorest;  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
fair  parks,  and  in  the  open  country,  where,  in  addi 
tion,  even  houses  are  turned  to  account  for  the 
proclamation  of  some  quack  medicine  or  hair  restorer 
or  stove  polish. 

There  is  no  escaping  from  them,  and  while  it  is 
perfectly  true  that  even  in  artistic  Paris  the  adver 
tiser  has  likewise  seized  upon  every  coign  of  vantage, 

236 


ART 

there  is  at  least  the  redeeming  feature  that  the  ad 
vertisements  are  artistic,  while  in  the  United  States 
they  are  frequently  the  very  offensiveness  of  crudity 
and  coarseness.  Considering  that  there  are  men  in 
the  country,  and  not  a  few,  capable,  thanks  to  the 
training  they  have  received,  of  producing  posters  of 
merit  and  bills  that  are  a  pleasure  to  look  at,  it  is 
the  more  to  be  regretted  that  the  inevitable  adver 
tising  boards  are  so  thoroughly  and  completely 
hideous.  But  they  pay:  they  pay  the  owner  of  the 
land;  they  pay  the  advertiser;  they  pay  the  bill 
poster,  and  once  a  thing  pays,  no  other  considera 
tions  can  prevail.  The  beauty  of  the  city  may  be 
marred;  what  matter?  Money  is  being  made  by 
the  marring.  The  better  sense  of  the  better  bred  is 
shocked.  Money  is  being  got,  and  money  tops  art 
any  day  and  every  day. 

No ;  the  American  has  not  the  true  art  sense. 
Individual  Americans  have  it,  and  appreciate  all 
forms  of  beauty,  but  taken  collectively  he  is  wholly 
lacking  in  it.  In  respect  to  art,  the  average  Ameri 
can  is  hopelessly  bourgeois,  terribly  Philistine.  It 
does  not  appeal  to  him;  it  is  merely  a  something 
that  can  be  procured,  like  everything  else,  in  return 
for  dollars. 

But  there  is  ever  another  side  to  a  picture,  and 
when  America  and  the  Americans  are  discussed,  it 
is  not  one  side  but  many  that  have  to  be  taken  ac 
count  of.  For  the  country  and  the  people  present 
so  many  and  such  varied  aspects  and  characteristics 
that  what  is  true  of  one  part  of  the  land,  of  one 
portion  of  the  people,  may  not  be  true  of  other 

237 


AMERICANS    AND.  THE    BRITONS 

parts.  It  is  a  land  of  contrasts  and  surprises,  of 
differences  that  seem  inexplicable ;  very  often  of 
oppositions  that  are  wholly  unexpected,  and  this  in 
matters  of  art,  as  in  questions  of  politics  or  any 
thing  else.  There  are  splendid  monuments,  side  by 
side  with  thoroughly  hideous  ones ;  there  are  men 
and  women  with  the  most  refined,  the  most  deli 
cate,  the  most  accurate  perception  of  art  in  all  its 
manifestations,  and  there  is  an  overwhelming  ma 
jority  utterly  unable  to  grasp  the  most  rudimentary 
notions  of  the  ideal.  By  the  side  of  those  who  look 
on  literature,  on  painting,  on  music  as  merely  frivol 
ities  which  are  expensive  and  wearisome  but  which 
must  be  accepted  because  it  is  the  proper  thing  to 
accept  them,  there  are  those  whose  taste  is  critical, 
whose  understanding  is  perfect,  whose  enjoyment  is 
of  the  highest.  There  are  collections,  private  and 
public,  which  make  the  wonder  and  the  joy  of  the 
artist ;  there  are  evidences  of  genuine  feeling  for  the 
beautiful  and  proofs  of  the  existence  of  a  true  es 
thetic  spirit. 

Above  all  there  is  the  determination,  perfectly 
plain,  that  America  shall  not  lag  behind  the  coun 
tries  of  the  Old  World  in  any  one  particular.  Con 
sequently,  the  study  of  art  is  included,  in  a  minor 
degree,  even  in  school  programs,  and  in  colleges 
and  universities  there  are  courses  and  lectures  and 
demonstrations  which  tell  of  and  which  contain  in 
themselves  the  promise  of  a  development  of  the  un 
derstanding  of  art  and  its  practice.  There  are  so 
cieties  of  painters,  of  sculptors,  of  architects,  of 
musicians,  and  there  are  literary  clubs  like  the  sands 

238 


ART 

of  the  sea,  in  multitude.  The  school  children  are 
being  taught  by  the  subtle  method  of  placing  con 
tinually  before  them  reproductions  of  the  master 
pieces  of  all  countries  and  all  ages.  There  are 
books,  numberless,  published  as  introductions  and 
guides  to  the  knowledge  of  art  in  its  various  mani 
festations. 

These  facts  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  if  a 
genuine  national  art  is  not  evolved  in  the  course  of 
time,  it  will  not  be  for  the  lack  of  persistent  and 
generally  intelligent  teaching.  It  may  be  that  the 
artistic  atmosphere  will  form  and  grow  in  the  United 
States  as  it  has  done  in  other  lands,  and  that  the 
artist  will  find  himself  in  congenial  surroundings. 
All  things  are  possible  in  America,  and  where  so 
many  wonderful  things  have  already  been  carried 
out,  it  is  on  the  cards  that  the  sense  for  art  may  in 
its  turn  be  created  and  maintained. 

But  there  are  many  difficulties  to  be  surmounted, 
and  the  progress  can  in  no  event  prove  very  rapid. 
The  continual  churning-up  of  the  social  strata,  the 
incessant  irruption  into  the  wealthy  class  of  those 
who  have  risen  from  the  ranks,  without  any  of  that 
tradition  of  the  beautiful  and  the  ideal  which  is  the 
appanage  of  the  highly  cultured,  make  for  delay  in 
advancement.  So  much  gold  is  wasted  on  atrocities 
and  inferior  productions,  so  little  knowledge  is 
shown  of  the  qualities  which  constitute  a  master 
piece,  so  little  interest  in  art  as  compared  with  the 
keen  interest  felt  in  money-making  that  one  cannot 
be  very  hopeful  for  the  growth  of  the  esthetic  sense 
throughout  all  classes. 

239 


XIV 
EDUCATION 

The  trite  saying,  knowledge  is  power,  might  also 
be  rendered  knowledge  is  liberty,  for  there  is  nothing 
which  is  so  indispensable  in  a  democracy  as  that 
instruction  which  enlightens  the  individual  regard 
ing  his  duties  and  his  responsibilities.  That  is  the 
essential  point :  without  that  knowledge  he  can  never 
be  truly  free.  Every  man  in  a  democracy  being, 
whether  he  will  or  no,  interested  in  and  responsible 
for  the  government  of  the  commonwealth,  it  follows 
that  he  should  receive  the  training  which  will  enable 
him  to  take  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  country,  and  to  realize  the  greatness 
of  his  responsibility  toward  the  community  at  large. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  education  in  the  United 
States  and  men  are  naturally  proud  of  the  results 
they  obtain,  but  there  is  not  enough  instruction  in  the 
duties  of  citizenship,  not  nearly  enough  in  the  respon 
sibilities  of  freedom.  There  are  excellent  systems  of 
common  schools,  wherein  the  rich  and  the  poor  alike 
receive  the  best  of  teaching;  colleges  and  technical 
institutions  where  the  youth  may  fit  himself  for  busi 
ness  or  a  profession ;  universities  where  he  may  pro 
ceed  to  highest  studies  and  to  original  research. 


EDUCATION 

The  program  of  the  schools,  the  curriculum  of  the 
colleges,  the  syllabus  of  the  universities  give  him 
the  widest  choice  of  subjects  and  permit  him  to 
select  such  lines  of  work  as  please  his  fancy  or  serve 
his  more  determinate  purpose.  It  would  be  difficult, 
indeed,  to  discover  any  topic  on  which  instruction 
may  not  be  obtained,  save,  perchance,  the  most  use 
ful  of  all  to  the  citizen  of  a  democratic  state:  civic 
instruction. 

It  exists,  up  to  a  certain  point;  but  it  is  to  be 
found  more  especially  in  higher  institutions  of  learn 
ing,  and  while  it  is  true  that  many  students  attend 
these,  it  is  likewise  true  that  the  vast  majority  of  the 
voters  never  go  beyond  the  elementary  teaching  to 
be  had  in  the  public  schools.  The  voters  who  com 
pose  this  class,  being  the  most  numerous,  are  those 
whose  suffrage  will  determine  the  result  of  the  elec 
tions  ;  they  are  those  who  least  apprehend  what  the 
responsibility  of  a  citizen  is ;  who  least  understand 
that  a  vote  is  not  simply  a  marketable  commodity, 
and  should  not  be  turned  into  one,  but  that  it  is  a 
power  which  should  be  used  with  discrimination  and 
with  singleness  of  purpose.  These  men  have  not 
the  smallest  perception  of  the  consequence  of  vot 
ing  beyond  the  fact  that  if  the  candidate  for  whom 
they  have  been  ordered,  by  the  boss,  to  plump,  is 
returned,  some  ulterior  material  benefit  will  accrue 
to  them  personally.  They  take  the  commercial 
view  of  suffrage:  their  vote  is  a  means  of  getting  a 
few  dollars  in  return  for  a  walk  to  the  polling  booth ; 
it  is  a  possible  way  of  securing  a  desirable  berth 
in  the  employ  of  the  city,  State  or  Federal  adminis- 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

tration ;  it  is  not  exercising  the  right  of  a  free  man 
to  determine  the  character  of  the  government. 

Universal  suffrage  is  a  curse  and  an  evil  at  the 
present  time  in  the  United  States  because  it  is  the 
appanage  of  the  ignorant  and  the  venal ;  because  the 
patriot,  the  true  patriot,  who  is  ever  ready  to  make 
sacrifices  for  the  good  of  his  country,  and  who  is 
unselfish,  is  outvoted  by  the  mass  of  sordid  and 
careless  individuals  who  care  naught  for  the  success 
of  a  wise  policy  and  have  no  thought  save  for  the 
personal  advantage  they  may  draw  from  the  sale — 
it  may  be  repeated,  sale — of  their  vote.  It  is  a 
curse,  because,  with  the  prevailing  laxity  of  public 
opinion,  with  the  lack  of  thorough  and  widespread 
civic  instruction,  it  is  not  the  best  men  who  deter 
mine  the  fate  of  measures  but  the  nerveless,  the 
weak,  the  ignorant,  the  venal,  led  as  these  are  by 
the  unscrupulous  and  the  daring.  Admirable  in 
theory,  and  a  logical  consequence  of  the  principle 
that  all  men  are  free  and  all  are  therefore  interested 
in  the  administration  of  affairs,  it  fails  and  is  vicious 
because  in  practice  it  includes  among  the  free  those 
who  are  enslaved  by  ignorance  and  bound  by  the 
fetters  of  selfish  greed. 

At  times  there  is  an  explosion  of  public  senti 
ment,  and  a  really  great  man  is  elected  by  popular 
votes,  but  that  is  rare.  The  rule  is  that  voters  fol 
low  the  behests  of  the  self-appointed  dictators,  and 
these  men  do  not  seek  the  good  of  the  country; 
they  aim  simply  at  their  own  personal  profit.  They 
control  the  votes  of  the  great  mass  of  people;  they 
buy  and  sell  them  as  they  would  any  other  com- 


EDUCATION 

modity;  they  bargain  with  candidates;  they  settle 
the  distribution  of  patronage,  and  the  partition  of 
the  spoils.  Great  improvement  has  been  made  within 
the  past  few  years  but  it  is  great  only  relatively; 
there  yet  remains  very  much  to  be  done  before  the 
democratic  principle  of  universal  suffrage  can  be 
said  to  have  justified  itself. 

While  it  is  true,  as  has  just  been  said,  that  public 
sentiment  will  rally  round  a  great  man,  one  worthy 
of  all  the  honor  that  his  country  can  confer  upon 
him,  this  is  no  more  than  saying  that  voters  are  apt 
to  cast  their  votes  for  any  man  who  is  strong,  for 
such  is  the  tendency  of  democracy  that  it  almost 
invariably  inclines  to  the  very  strong,  even  to  the 
tyrannical.  There  is  in  the  manifestation  and  proof 
of  strength  an  extraordinary  attraction  which  de 
mocracy  cannot  resist.  The  Sovereign  People  are 
carried  away  by  the  sight  of  individual  power,  and 
readily  confer  upon  the  possessor  of  it  the  most 
extensive  sway.  This  is  a  grave  danger  to  the  per 
manency  of  democratic  institutions,  but  the  danger, 
recognized  by  a  few,  is  unheeded  by  the  many.  A 
sound  and  thorough  civic  education  would  guard 
against  the  mass  of  the  voters  being  thus  swept  off 
their  feet,  and  casting  their  ballots  without  due 
reflection. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  view  of  the  responsi 
bilities  of  a  voter  in  a  democratic  country  involves 
too  heavy  a  demand  on  the  intelligence  and  on  the 
time  of  the  citizen.  No  doubt  that  is  the  case,  but 
it  is  the  natural,  the  logical  consequence  of  true 
democracy,  which  is  not  a  thing  composed  of  sonor- 

243 


AMERICANS   AND   THE   BRITONS 

ous,  empty  phrases  such  as  are  too  often  served  out 
to  the  people,  but  a  reality  and  a  grave  one  at  that. 
Democracy  involves,  let  it  be  once  more  repeated, 
responsibilities  that  are  not  extant  in  despotic  gov 
ernments  or  in  aristocratic  communities.  In  a 
democracy  all  citizens  are  equally  responsible  for  the 
proper  conduct  of  public  affairs ;  all  are  equally 
bound  to  inform  themselves  seriously  and  fully,  and 
to  cast  their  votes  not  in  accordance  with  their 
personal  advantage,  but  for  the  good  of  the  entire 
community.  A  man  cannot  decently  expect  to  en 
joy  all  the  benefits  of  liberty  and  at  the  same  time 
to  escape  from  the  duties  it  entails  upon  him.  He 
is  not  a  true  democrat  when  he  does  this ;  he  is  not 
a  faithful  citizen.  He  is  bound  to  assume  his  share 
of  the  common  burden,  which  he  ought  not  to  re 
gard  as  a  burden  at  all,  but  as  what  it  is,  a  high 
privilege:  the  privilege  of  the  free  man. 

Along  this  line,  therefore,  it  is  that  education 
should  train  men  in  a  democratic  state,  and  for  this 
purpose  education  must  be  general,  thorough,  and 
include  not  alone  those  subjects  which  are  of  use 
everywhere  and  under  all  conditions,  but  especially 
civic  education,  the  teaching  of  the  duties  and  re 
sponsibilities  of  the  citizen  to  the  community.  All 
manner  of  things  are  more  or  less  well  taught  to 
the  children  in  the  public  schools:  they  are  given 
small  doses  of  this,  that  and  the  other,  but  the  great 
number  are  left  ignorant  of  the  real  task  before 
them.  They  are  told  of  the  wonderful  development 
of  the  land,  of  its  illimitable  resources ;  they  are 
trained  to  believe  in  its  superiority  over  all  others 

244 


EDUCATION 

in  the  world ;  they  are  led  to  contemplate  its  in 
effable  greatness,  but  they  are  not  taught,  or  not 
sufficiently  taught  that  all  these  splendors  involve 
corresponding  duties  on  their  part,  and  that  the 
discharge  of  these  duties  is  expected  and  required 
of  them  if  the  Union  is  to  remain  the  great  exemplar 
of  applied  democracy. 

The  field  is  a  rich  one,  and  the  ground  is  fertile, 
for  in  the  United  States  one  of  the  greatest  charms 
of  life  is  the  love  and  desire  of  education.  It  is 
general,  it  is  universal,  one  may  say.  Education  is 
not  the  monopoly  of  the  select  few:  it  is  the  inheri 
tance  and  the  prerogative  of  all.  Generally  com 
pulsory,  the  opportunity  to  acquire  knowledge  is 
freely  offered  to  all — the  schools  are  good  taken  all 
round :  the  teachers  usually  well  equipped  and  in 
terested  in  their  work;  the  taxpayers  abundantly 
willing  to  make  the  necessary  sacrifices  for  the  main 
tenance,  on  a  high  scale  of  efficiency,  of  the  estab 
lishments  of  education.  A  wonderful  generosity 
manifests  itself  constantly  in  this  direction.  Re 
spect  and  admiration  are  entertained  for  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  teaching.  In  few,  if  any  coun 
tries,  is  this  the  case  to  a  similar  extent. 

The  influence  of  the  teaching  body  is  extraordin 
arily  great  although  it  is  exercised  quietly.  Heads 
of  educational  institutions  rank  among  the  first 
of  the  land ;  their  opinion  is  eagerly  sought  after ; 
their  views  are  closely  studied ;  their  counsel  prized ; 
their  cooperation  desired.  Scarcely  an  interview, 
hardly  a  symposium  is  published  in  the  press  but 
includes  one  or  more  representatives  of  the  edu- 

245 


AMERICANS   AND   THE   BRITONS 

cational  staff  of  the  country.  It  is  a  high  honor 
to  be  called  to  a  chair  in  a  university  or  to  the 
presidency  of  a  college. 

The  college  is  the  natural  goal  of  thousands  who, 
In  Europe,  would  not  dream  of  such  a  continuation 
of  the  elementary  education  they  have  received. 
The  boy  engaged  in  selling  papers  expects  to  enter 
the  establishment  which  has  made  his  city  or  his 
State  illustrious,  and  there  to  obtain  that  knowl 
edge  which  will  enable  him  to  rise  in  the  world.  The 
lad  who  has  to  earn  his  way  saves  all  he  can  in 
order  at  some  future  time  to  gain  the  advantage  of 
a  college  education.  The  facility  with  which  this 
can  be  had  is  a  potent  factor  in  the  general  uplift 
ing  of  the  nation.  It  is  largely  because  instruction 
is  freely  given  that  all  careers  are  open  to  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  land.  It  is  because  institu 
tions  of  higher  learning  abound  everywhere  that 
men  and  women  can  fit  themselves  for  better  work 
and  for  the  attainment  of  a  place  higher  in  the 
social  scale.  Democracy  is  a  living  force  in  this 
respect,  and  the  spread  of  schools,  colleges  and  uni 
versities  is  one  of  the  most  beneficent  results  of  the 
principle. 

This  involves,  on  the  other  hand,  the  responsibil 
ity  of  giving  to  the  multitudes  which  resort  to  these 
institutions  that  civic  education  without  which  the 
citizen  of  the  Republic  is  and  remains  imperfect,  and 
incapable  of  properly  discharging  his  duties  to  the 
community.  For  the  smattering — it  is  often  no 
more — of  many  a  subject  not  of  pressing  and  im 
mediate  necessity,  might  well  be  substituted  in  the 

246 


EDUCATION 

schools  themselves,  and  certainly  in  many  of  the  col 
leges,  a  foundation,  sure  and  firm,  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  principles  of  democracy  and  of  the  duties 
consequent  upon  it.  Scholars  are  a  glorious  fruit 
of  universities,  but  the  schools  and  the  colleges 
should  especially  devote  themselves  to  the  making 
of  men  and  women,  of  citizens  aware  of  their  privi 
leges  and  prepared  to  perform  their  duties  to  the 
commonwealth.  This  plain  part  of  the  work  of  the 
educational  institutions  is  yet  but  imperfectly  ful 
filled ;  it  needs  to  be  greatly  extended.  Most  of  the 
problems  which  men  and  women  alike,  in  the  peculiar 
conditions  of  life  in  the  United  States,  have  to  face 
once  they  go  out  into  the  world,  are  connected  with 
social,  economic  and  political  questions.  They 
should  therefore  be  trained  to  meet  these  difficulties 
and  to  aid  in  solving  them  for  the  greatest  advan 
tage  to  the  greatest  number. 

Of  the  several  points  which  compel  attention,  in 
connection  with  education  in  the  United  States, 
there  are  two  or  three  which  must  be  mentioned  as 
developed  largely  by  the  democratic  spirit  ever  at 
work  among  the  people ;  that  spirit  which  inspired 
the  founders  of  the  Union,  and  which  directs  their 
worthiest  successors. 

The  first  is  the  individual  generosity  which  has 
built  up,  and  in  more  than  one  case,  founded  insti 
tutions  of  learning.  Reference  has  already  been 
made  to  the  readiness  with  which  money  is  every 
where  voted  for  the  maintenance  of  schools ;  this 
inclination  to  favor  a  system  by  which  everyone 
profits  is  doubtless  meritorious,  but,  after  all,  it  is 

247 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

not  unexpected  or  surprising  since  the  benefits  de 
rived  from  the  schooling  of  boys  and  girls  are  ap 
parent  to  everyone.  What  is  particularly  fine,  what 
is  very  admirable,  is  the  way  in  which  the  higher 
establishments  are  supported,  encouraged  and 
strengthened  year  by  year,  and  without  the  smallest 
diminution  of  that  just  interest  in  them  which  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  traits  in  the  American  char 
acter. 

Benefactors  are  never  wanting,  and  it  is  to  the 
credit  of  the  greatest  institutions  that  their  re 
sources  are  largely  drawn  from  the  gratitude  of 
their  own  scholars.  It  is  the  graduates  who  come 
forward  with  loyal  fervor  to  supply  their  Alma 
Mater  with  the  wealth  needed  to  carry  out  to  the 
full  the  noble  purposes  she  has  in  view.  It  is  the 
rich  who  have  some  relation  with  the  university, 
through  a  son,  a  brother,  if  not  themselves  directly, 
who  lavish  upon  learning  the  abundance  of  their 
fortune.  In  every  college  and  university  throughout 
the  land  are  to  be  seen  testimonies  to  this  American 
spirit  of  aid  for  the  learning  which  is  to  make  men 
for  the  nation.  There  are  State  universities,  deriv 
ing  their  income  from  the  appropriations  made  by 
the  legislatures ;  but  there  are  especially  institutions 
which  in  nowise  depend  upon  the  will  of  a  body  to 
maintain  them,  but  which  grow  and  expand,  thanks 
to  the  munificence  of  private  individuals  and  to  the 
wise  administration  of  their  funds  by  their  corpora 
tions. 

In  these  colleges  and  universities,  as  in  the  schools, 
are  seen  seated  side  by  side  the  sons  of  the  well-to- 

248 


EDUCATION 

do,  of  the  rich  and  of  the  laboring  classes.  The 
descendant  of  an  old  family ;  the  lad  who  is  earning 
his  way ;  the  son  of  the  tradesman ;  the  boy  who 
comes  from  an  humble  home,  whose  own  parents 
never  could  hope  for  higher  education,  are  there, 
being  taught  together  and  learning  to  know  each 
other.  That  is  what  is  most  inspiring,  perhaps,  in 
the  educational  system  of  the  country.  It  is  true 
democracy,  which  takes  no  account  of  position  but 
makes  success  depend  upon  personal  effort  and  per 
sonal  merit. 

Yet  another  feature:  the  absolute  freedom  of  the 
instructor  in  most  of  the  large  universities — not 
quite  in  all,  it  must  be  confessed.  That  freedom  is 
practically  unlimited,  save  by  the  consensus  of 
opinion  within  the  university  as  to  the  best  meth 
ods,  and  by  the  sound  sense  of  the  instructor  him 
self. 

But  here  enters  into  account  a  point  of  much  in 
terest  and  singular  charm:  the  influence  of  the  stu 
dent  body  upon  the  teaching  staff.  While,  in  the 
largest  universities,  there  is  not,  and  through  the 
force  of  circumstances  there  cannot  be  that  close 
and  intimate  relation  between  the  teacher  and  the 
taught  which  is  one  of  the  advantages  of  the  tutorial 
system,  there  is  a  stimulus  and  a  spur  which  the 
instructor  speedily  feels.  There  is  also  a  communion 
of  thought,  a  harmony  of  effort,  a  willingness  on 
the  part  of  the  student  to  do  his  share  of  the  work 
fairly;  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  make  the  way 
as  plain  as  possible.  This  is  due  in  great  measure 
to  the  character  of  the  American  youth,  as  fine  a 

249 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

product  as  is  to  be  met  with.  He  is  genuinely 
likable ;  he  is  attractive,  because  he  is  sincere  and 
simple;  he  is  enjoyable  because  he  has  the  capacity 
for  enjoyment  himself,  and  withal,  save  in  some  ex 
ceptions,  a  desire  to  profit  by  the  instruction  he  is 
in  the  place  to  receive.  He  is  not  always  a  scholar, 
a  "grind,"  as  college  slang  has  it,  but  he  is  quite 
ready  and  willing  to  do  a  day's  work  in  a  day  if 
properly  handled. 

That  is  important,  for  the  spirit  of  independence 
is  strong  in  him.  He  is,  like  all  his  race,  impatient 
of  strict  discipline,  and  is  always  more  easily  and 
successfully  led  than  driven:  which  is  in  his  favor 
and  in  that  of  the  wise  teacher,  for  the  latter  is  well 
aware  that  it  is  far  more  profitable  to  lead  than  it 
is  to  push  and  press  forward  the  unwilling.  The 
American  youth  is  critical  of  his  instructors ;  he 
does  not  entertain  for  them  the  traditional  respect 
which  is  assumed  to  exist  in  Europe.  He  judges 
them  as  he  judges  his  own  comrades,  and  he  accords 
his  respect  and  his  attention  or  withholds  them  in 
accordance  with  the  outcome  of  his  comparisons. 
He  is  perfectly  willing  to  do  anything  for  the  man 
who  takes  the  trouble  to  study  him  and  to  treat  him 
as  a  human  being;  he  is  ready  to  follow,  but  he  will 
not  easily  be  constrained.  He  will  rigidly  enforce 
discipline  if  the  enforcement  be  left  to  him;  he  will 
probably  kick  over  the  traces  if  the  man  in  author 
ity  holds  the  reins  too  tight.  He  can  be  depended 
upon  to  the  uttermost  once  he  has  passed  his  word 
— and  to  that  there  are  very  few  exceptions  indeed. 
He  is  honorable  in  his  dealings,  and  amenable  to 

250 


EDUCATION 

remonstrance  on  matters  which  he  looks  at  in  a  dif 
ferent  light  from  his  seniors.  He  enters  upon 
studies,  and  reveals  interest  in  questions  which  would 
seem  far  from  his  horizon;  he  delves  willingly  into 
the  matters  brought  before  him,  and  enters  into 
discussions  and  debates  with  heartiness  and  enthusi 
asm.  He  "wants  to  know,"  once  he  has  been  taken 
with  a  study;  and  it  is  for  his  instructor  to  supply 
the  want.  He  takes  naturally  to  administration; 
he  establishes  societies  of  many  sorts  and  manages 
them;  he  enters  upon  business  and  succeeds  in  it 
even  while  in  college;  he  can  "run"  things  and  he 
likes  to  do  it;  in  short,  in  college,  in  the  university, 
he  trains  himself  for  the  busy  life  of  the  world  to 
which  he  is  looking  forward. 

Best  of  all,  he  is  a  youth,  not  an  old  head  on 
young  shoulders,  but  a  real  youth  with  all  the  charm 
of  his  age  and  with  all  the  essential  traits  of  it.  He 
loves  sport ;  he  grows  wildly  enthusiastic  over  foot 
ball,  almost  as  much  over  baseball,  mildly  so  over 
rowing  and  tennis.  He  gets  into  scrapes  and  he  gets 
out  of  them;  he  is  delightfully  forgetful,  at  times, 
and  still  more  delightfully  winning  in  seeking  to  ex 
cuse  himself.  He  has  the  secret  of  attracting  old 
and  young,  and  while  the  praises  of  the  American 
girl  are  sung  in  lyric  mode  until  it  becomes  difficult 
to  find  the  original  of  the  rhapsodies,  the  American 
youth,  unsung  and  little  drawn  by  illustrators,  re 
tains  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  his  character,  and 
the  full  charm  of  his  age. 

No  one  else  can  claim  to  know  the  American 
who  knows  not,  somewhat  intimately  the  American 

251 


AMERICANS   AND   THE   BRITONS 

youth,  with  all  his  cordiality,  his  ease,  his  frank 
ness,  his  thoroughness  in  all  he  does.  He  can  be 
tremendously  conceited,  and  at  the  same  time  abso 
lutely  modest;  he  believes  in  himself,  in  his  country, 
yet  he  is  ready  to  take  advice  and  to  seek  it.  He  is 
prudent  in  many  of  his  enterprises  and  amusingly 
rash  in  other  matters.  He  has  comradeship  strong 
ly  developed,  yet  he  can  pull  his  own  car  and  make 
his  own  way.  He  is  entirely  pleasant  to  meet,  and 
he  leaves  memories  that  are  dear  to  the  man  who 
has  long  been  with  him.  He  is  the  hope  of  his  coun 
try,  and  that  hope  will  not  prove  illusory.  The 
young  generations,  as  they  succeed  each  other,  are 
contributing  something  more  to  the  common  stock, 
and  in  them  is  to  be  aroused  that  high  sense  of 
duty  to  the  Republic  which  is  the  surest  warrant  of 
the  continuance  and  magnificent  development  of 
democracy  along  the  lines  of  progress  and  usefulness 
to  humanity. 

To  education  the  success  of  the  United  States  is 
very  largely  due,  and  in  directing  education,  the 
country,  guided  by  men  of  great  wisdom,  has  avoided 
many  of  the  difficulties  and  complications  which  em 
barrass  the  older  European  countries.  The  fortunes 
of  the  Birrell  Education  bill  in  England  were 
watched  with  curiosity  by  many  in  the  United 
States  who  could  not  understand  what  all  the  pother 
was  about,  and  to  whom  the  contentions  of  Church 
men  and  Nonconformists  were  worse  than  Greek  and 
Hebrew.  That  was  because  in  America  all  the  com 
plications  with  which  the  Liberal  Government  so  un 
successfully  attempted  to  deal  are  practically  un- 


EDUCATION 

known.  Education  is  not  confided  to  the  care  of 
rival  churches  and  sects,  ever  quarreling  and  fight 
ing,  but  is  the  duty  of  the  State  itself,  which  owes 
to  its  citizens  elementary  instruction  at  least,  and  in 
many  cases  gives  them  yet  more  advanced  teaching. 
Consequently,  with  the  universal  desire  for  instruc 
tion  characteristic  of  the  American,  and  the  absence 
of  polemics  on  the  question  of  religious  teaching, 
the  problem  which  still  baffles  British  statesmen  does 
not  present  itself  here.  Children  are  all  taught  what 
the  State  should  teach  them ;  the  question  of  religious 
instruction  is  left  to  be  dealt  with,  as  it  ought  to  be, 
by  the  churches  themselves. 

The  United  States  is  not,  officially,  a  Christian 
State,  and  the  various  States  composing  the  Union, 
while  many  of  them  are  officially  Christian,  have 
adopted  the  plan  of  separating  entirely  secular  and 
religious  education.  And  on  the  whole,  the  results 
are  satisfactory.  The  churches  themselves  are 
stirred  up  to  greater  activity,  and  the  work  that 
else  would  be  but  imperfectly  performed  is  carried 
out  with  thoroughness.  Pupils  of  all  creeds  sit  side 
by  side  in  the  schools,  as  do  pupils  of  every  social 
class  and  of  every  color,  for,  except  in  the  South 
ern  States,  the  negro  and  mulatto  are  no  more 
segregated  than  are  the  children  of  the  poor.  In 
practice,  some  schools  are  attended  more  largely 
by  the  children  of  the  well-to-do  than  by  those 
of  the  working  classes,  usually  so-called,  but  this 
is  due  not  to  any  discrimination  between  them,  which 
would  not  be  admissible,  but  simply  to  conditions  of 
residence — the  various  quarters  of  the  cities  being 

253 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

more  particularly  sought  by  one  class  rather  than 
by  another. 

The  mingling  of  pupils  has  a  distinctly  beneficial 
effect  upon  the  fundamental  notions  they  carry  away 
with  them  after  their  school  years  are  over;  they 
have  imbibed,  at  an  age  when  impressions  are  easily 
and  lastingly  made,  the  idea  of  the  practical  equal 
ity  of  all  men  in  the  country.  They  have  become 
accustomed  to  intercourse  with  those  not  so  rich  as 
themselves,  it  may  be,  and  moving  in  a  different  so 
cial  circle;  they  have  found  out  that  it  is  not  so 
cial  position  which  wins  distinction  in  school,  but 
talent  and  effort,  and  these  lessons  are  of  the  utmost 
value  in  life. 

For  no  man,  in  the  United  States,  can  know  what 
the  morrow  will  bring  forth.  The  individual  whom 
he  has  possibly  disdained  and  looked  down  upon, 
may  turn  out  his  superior  in  the  race  for  supremacy 
in  life.  The  fact  that  opportunity  is  given  to  one 
and  all  and  that  there  is  no  class  distinction  as  such, 
prevents  the  ordinary  man  from  supposing  himself 
safe  from  competition ;  on  the  contrary,  he  is  well 
aware  that  he  will  have  to  meet  it.  And  his  train 
ing  in  school  teaches  him  that  it  is  on  himself  he 
must  rely  and  not  on  any  adventitious  circumstances 
of  birth  or  wealth. 

Americans  contract  readily  the  habit  of  reading, 
thanks  to  the  schools,  and  are,  in  the  main,  apt  to 
keep  it  up.  The  young,  particularly,  develop  it  to  a 
quite  remarkable  extent.  The  reading  rooms  of  the 
public  libraries  always  contain  large  numbers  of 
youthful  readers,  and  circulating  libraries  also  draw 

254 


EDUCATION 

many  of  them.  Fiction  is  not  the  only  branch  of 
literature  they  patronize ;  naturally  enough  it  is  the 
chief  one,  but  they  add  to  works  of  the  imagination 
others  of  a  more  serious  character. 

The  results  of  this  fondness  for  instruction,  of 
the  spread  of  education  among  all  classes,  are  strik 
ingly  evident,  and  a  walk  through  the  streets  of  any 
American  city,  a  conversation  with  the  ordinary 
workman  returning  to  his  home  at  the  end  of  the 
day,  a  chat  with  the  farmer  or  his  boy,  suffice  to 
reveal  how  vast  is  the  influence  and  how  uplifting. 
There  is  something  in  the  air  and  bearing  of  the 
average  workingman  which  marks  at  once  his  pos 
session  of  a  certain  amount  of  intellectual  training. 
He  is  as  a  rule  bright  and  quick;  that  is  because  his 
mental  discipline  has  been  looked  after  in  childhood 
and  youth. 

It  is  worth  watching  a  regiment  of  State  militia, 
or  a  regiment  bound  to  war,  for  the  purpose  of 
noting  the  peculiarly  intelligent  aspect  of  the  men 
in  the  ranks.  There  is  certainly  lacking  that  smart 
ness  which  is  considered  in  Europe  a  sine  qua  non, 
but  in  its  place  there  is  seen  easily  enough  a  greater 
intelligence,  a  greater  keenness,  a  greater  individual 
ity;  all  things  which,  no  doubt,  do  not  conduce  to 
make  a  soldier  after  the  pattern  dear  to  the  heart 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  but  which  produce  a  fighter 
capable  of  taking  care  not  only  of  himself  but  of 
others  as  well,  should  need  arise. 

And  education  has  entered  into  the  whole  life  of 
the  people,  entered  into  it  in  a  way  that  is  not  readily 
understood,  because  not  easily  perceived,  by  the 

255 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

transient  visitor.  It  is  not  only  the  large  diffusion 
of  libraries  through  the  land,  although  that  in  itself 
is  an  index  of  the  interest  taken  in  study ;  it  is  not 
only  the  maintenance  of  schools  in  every  district;  it 
is  the  earnest  and  general  desire  manifest  among  a 
class  which,  in  older  lands,  is  content  perforce  to  re 
main  uninstructed,  to  obtain  education  and  to  turn 
it  to  account  as  a  means  of  mental  and  temporal 
improvement.  Few  things  are  so  admirable,  in  a 
land  where  admirable  things  greet  one  at  every  turn, 
as  the  persistent  effort  made,  often  under  most  dis 
advantageous  and  distressing  circumstances,  to  se 
cure  that  instruction  which  will  give  the  oppor 
tunity  of  rising. 

Men  and  women  alike  share  that  yearning,  and 
seek  to  satisfy  it  even  at  the  cost  of  self-denial  and 
sacrifice.  Anyone  who  has  had  the  chance  to  observe 
the  youth  of  America  will  bear  witness  to  that  trait 
of  the  national  character.  The  Americans,  in  this 
respect,  resemble  that  sturdy  Scottish  race  that  so 
€arly  developed  a  system  of  instruction  which  re 
sulted  in  fitting  its  sons  to  fight  their  way  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  and  to  attain  success  where  other 
races  would  fail.  The  Scottish  shepherd  laddie,  who 
read  his  Homer  and  his  Virgil  while  tending  his 
flocks,  has  his  counterpart  many  times  repeated  in 
the  United  States,  and  the  origin  of  many  a  man 
who  has  gained  fame,  not  at  home  only  but  abroad, 
is  as  humble,  in  the  conventional  sense  of  the  word, 
as  that  of  many  an  eminent  Scotsman  who,  thanks 
to  the  spirit  of  his  nation,  the  traditions  of  his  coun 
try  and  the  opportunities  it  affords  for  education, 

256 


EDUCATION 

has  passed  into  a  higher  realm  and  benefited  human- 
ity. 

The  great  number  of  colleges  and  universities  is 
additional  proof  of  the  democratizing  of  education. 
Everyone,  practically,  has  the  chance  to  obtain 
higher  training,  after  the  work  of  the  primary,  sec 
ondary,  and  high  schools.  The  poorest  lad,  if  of 
parts,  can  obtain  in  some  one  of  the  numerous  estab 
lishments  that  first  help  to  the  studious  which  is 
of  such  incalculable  value  at  the  time  it  is  given. 
And  this  is  due  to  the  beneficence,  the  public  spirit 
of  private  individuals ;  it  is  not  the  State  which  thus 
smooths  the  way;  it  is  an  American,  man  or  woman, 
feeling  the  prevailing  admiration  for  instruction, 
who  has  given  or  left  money  for  that  special  purpose. 
The  colleges  and  universities  of  the  United  States 
are  not  primarily  for  the  rich  man's  son,  with  a  pos 
sible  opportunity  for  a  sizar,  but  they  are  for  all 
the  youth  of  the  land  regardless  of  the  monetary 
condition  of  the  parents.  In  them  the  able  youth 
can  maintain  himself  and  win  his  honors  and  make  a 
name  for  himself.  In  them  he  is  started  by  the  aid 
intended  for  him  and  his  like,  an  aid  which  he  not 
infrequently  repays  in  after  life.  He  takes  up  oc 
cupations  of  profit  with  the  knowledge  that  his  pur 
suit  of  them  will  in  no  respect  militate  against  his 
standing ;  labor,  honest  labor  is  honored,  as  it  should 
ever  be.  The  fact  that  a  student  is  poor  will  not 
for  an  instant  prevent  his  forming  useful  and  agree 
able  friendships ;  will  not  debar  him  from  participa 
tion  in  the  best  life  of  the  institution ;  will  not  pre 
possess  a  single  instructor  against  him,  but  on  the 

257 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

contrary,  will  enlist  in  his  behalf  the  cordial  sym 
pathy  of  those  who  witness,  approve  and  encourage 
his  efforts  to  make  a  man,  an  independent  man  of 
himself. 

It  is  in  the  colleges  and  the  universities  that  the 
spirit  of  "get  there"  is  seen  at  its  best  and  produces 
the  most  satisfactory  results.  The  competition  is 
keen  there  as  in  the  greater  world  outside,  but  the 
struggle  wholly  benefits  the  contestants.  If  the  vic 
tories  of  Great  Britain  have  been  won  on  the  playing 
fields  of  Eton  and  Harrow,  the  triumphs  of  the 
United  States  have  been  largely  won  in  the  district 
schools,  in  the  colleges  and  in  the  universities,  cen 
ters  of  a  life  whose  intensity  and  strenuousness  are 
typical  of  the  vigor  of  the  national  life;  where  the 
lad  from  the  farm  can  gain  that  insight  into  the 
problems  of  life  and  that  mastery  of  the  knowledge 
he  craves  which,  later,  will  make  him  the  man  of 
mark  and  leading  in  his  community. 

Deeply  interesting,  singularly  attractive  is  the 
American  youth,  whether  he  belong  to  the  rich  class 
which  has  given  him  all  the  comforts  and  charms  of 
life  from  childhood,  or  whether  he  be  sprung  from 
that  sturdy  and  reliable  farmer  stock  which  is  spread 
over  the  whole  territory  of  the  great  Union.  He  is 
well  worth  studying,  for  in  him  lie  the  possibilities 
of  the  future,  and  the  observer  who  applies  himself 
to  the  task  and  follows  the  careers  of  these  youths 
in  after  life,  learns  soon  that  democracy,  among 
the  other  great  benefits  it  has  conferred  upon  the 
land  and  its  people,  has  conferred  none  greater 
than  the  love  of  education  and  the  respect  for  it 

258 


EDUCATION 

which  forms  an  essential  trait  of  the  American 
character. 

And  how  splendid  are  the  opportunities  presented 
to  the  American  youth  in  college  and  university ! 
In  the  larger  institutions  especially,  he  has  the 
chance  to  see  and  hear  all  the  men  of  high  reputa 
tion  who,  from  his  own  land  or  from  foreign  shores, 
visit  the  establishment  of  which  he  forms  a  part. 
It  is  not  one  view  of  life  which  he  acquires  during 
his  residence ;  it  is  many  different  experiences  which 
he  hears  told ;  his  mind  is  broadened  by  contact  with 
innumerable  other  minds ;  his  intellect  sharpened  by 
contact  with  hundreds  of  other  intellects.  He  im 
bibes  knowledge  unwittingly  and  wittingly ;  he  ac 
quires  instruction  consciously  and  unconsciously;  he 
is  every  day  gaining  something  and  every  day,  even 
if  inclined  to  laziness  all  round,  which  is  not  a  fre 
quent  phenomenon,  he  learns  something  new  and  use 
ful.  That  on  the  whole  he  profits  by  all  this,  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at:  the  strange  thing  would  be  that 
he  should  be  less  able,  less  quick,  less  intelligent  and 
less  attractive  than  he  is. 

As  material  for  the  formation  of  a  manly  char 
acter  he  is  to  be  envied.  Responsive  and  adaptable, 
he  readily  follows  a  leader  who  inspires  him,  and  a 
teacher  in  the  United  States,  no  matter  what  the 
grade  of  institution  to  which  he  belongs,  must  be  a 
leader,  not  a  driver,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word.  It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  Amer 
ican  in  this  respect  is  restive  to  driving,  but  respon 
sive  to  enthusiasm,  to  inspiration,  to  leadership. 
With  these  qualities,  anything  can  be  made  of  the 

259 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

American  youth;  it  is  for  those  in  charge  of  his 
mental  and  moral  development  to  see  to  it  that  the 
results  are  obtained.  And  it  is  because  he  is  so  sus 
ceptible  to  the  right  kind  of  influence,  and  because 
he  can  be  interested,  that  the  hope  of  the  democracy 
of  the  future  is  so  bright.  All  that  is  needed  is  to 
train  the  youth  of  the  land  to  a  full  sense  of  their 
duties  and  responsibilities  as  citizens  ;  to  inform  them 
thoroughly  and  accurately  of  the  history  of  their 
race  and  their  ancestry,  their  political  ancestry, 
and  the  consequences  will  work  themselves  out  fav 
orably  for  the  nation. 

Civic  education,  in  large  and  generous  measure, 
education  directed  not  to  vain  boastfulness  of  past 
glories,  but  to  the  understanding  and  apprehension 
of  the  problems  of  democracy  and  especially  of  the 
problems  which  confront  his  own  country,  education 
which  shall  develop  and  root  in  him  unalterably  the 
sense  of  personal  honor,  of  public  honor,  of  public 
spirit,  of  true  patriotism — which  is  neither  brag  nor 
jingoism — that  education  given  to  the  youth  of 
America  will  assure  that  brilliant  future  so  often 
predicted  but  which  will  never  be  realized  unless 
measures  are  taken  to  insure  that  the  men  shall  be 
ready  when  the  need  arises  for  them — and  the  need 
is  ever  present  and  ever  will  be. 


XV 

THE    PRESS 

The  writer  of  impressions  and  the  dweller  in  the 
land  are  apt  to  be  of  one  mind  on  the  question  of 
the  press,  and  that  mind  is  not  favorable  to  an  in 
fluential  part  of  the  press.  The  papers  which  have 
the  largest  circulation,  all  over  the  country,  are 
those  which  compose  what  is  popularly  known  as 
"the  yellow  press,"  a  fit  appellation.  It  is  enough  to 
say  of  these  that  they  seek  not  so  much  to  give  the 
news  of  the  country  and  of  the  foreign  lands  v/ith 
which  the  United  States  are  in  constant  communica 
tion,  as  to  superexcite  the  love  of  gossip  and  scan 
dal,  ingrained  in  so  many  people,  and  which  has  been 
largely  developed  and  intensified  by  these  journals. 
The  appetite  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon,  and  while 
every  society  contains  a  large  proportion  of  persons 
whose  curiosity  is  more  particularly  directed  to 
ward  the  affairs  of  their  neighbors  and  toward  sa 
lacious  incidents,  it  is  unhappily  a  fact  that  no 
where  is  that  regrettable  feature  more  prevalent 
than  in  America. 

The  yellow  press  lives  on  sensation-mongering ;  it 
employs  any  and  every  means  of  stimulating  the  de 
sire  of  its  innumerable  readers  for  further  scandals 

261 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  greater  excitement.  It  panders  to  every  evil 
tendency  of  human  nature;  it  promotes  hatred, 
malice  and  all  uncharitableness,  and  the  one  object 
which  it  holds  superior  to  this,  is  the  making  of 
money.  For  the  yellow  press  and  its  various  pro 
prietors  do  not  enter  upon  their  business  of  corrupt 
ing  and  debasing  the  minds  of  the  readers  from  a 
simple  delight  in  filth  and  nastiness  and  falsehood ;  it 
may  even  be  maintained  that  did  they  believe  cleanli 
ness,  the  uplifting  of  men's  minds,  and  the  proclama 
tion  of  eternal  verities  a  paying  fashion  of  editing 
newspapers,  they  would,  without  a  moment's  hesita 
tion,  enter  upon  a  career  of  virtuous  journalism. 
But  they  want  to  make  money ;  gold  is  their  god,  and 
the  only  god  they  worship.  They  believe — and  ex 
perience  supports  their  belief — that  more  money  is 
to  be  made  by  serving  the  baser  sides  of  man  than  by 
helping  man  to  become  better.  They  are  on  the 
same  moral — or,  properly,  immoral — plane  as  the 
keepers  of  gambling'  hells,  of  dives,  of  houses  of  ill- 
fame,  of  low  grogshops,  of  bucket  shops,  and  the 
other  numerous  businesses  which  trade  upon  the 
folly  and  the  criminal  tendencies  of  men.  They  ex 
ploit  vice,  and  exploit  it  joyously,  enthusiastically, 
energetically.  They  seek  to  spur  the  greed  for  all 
that  is  vile  and  mean  and  disgusting.  They  resort 
to  bare  lying,  when  they  cannot  otherwise  attract 
attention.  They  must  continually  produce  effects 
startling  and  unexpected;  they  cannot  be  content 
for  a  single  moment  to  let  the  world  go  on  tranquilly. 
Distortion,  misrepresentation,  falsification  they 
thrive  on  and  cultivate  with  ardor.  Their  "scare 


THE    PRESS 

heads"  are  models  of  untruth ;  their  statements  may 
confidently  be  assumed  to  be  false  by  the  more  ra 
tional  and  reflective  of  the  community,  but  that 
matters  not  one  whit  to  them:  they  are  well  aware 
that  the  great  majority  of  their  readers  do  not  seek 
or  desire  truth,  but  sensation;  not  fact  but  inven 
tion  ;  not  news,  but  scandal,  the  spicier  and  the  fouler 
the  better. 

This  may  seem  a  harsh  judgment  to  pass  on  the 
newspaper-reading  public  which  eagerly  purchases 
and  peruses  these  sheets ;  on  the  men  of  business 
who  hurry  over  their  columns,  on  the  women  who 
study  them,  on  the  girls  and  boys  of  still  tender 
years  who  impregnate  their  minds  with  all  the  un- 
savoriness  and  all  the  abominations  which  are  coarse 
ly  and  crudely  told  in  these  debased  productions  of 
the  publisher's  art,  on  the  workmen  who,  after  a 
day's  toil,  delect  themselves  in  the  enjoyment  of 
attacks  on  all  that  is  best  in  the  world,  and  in  in 
finite  details  of  all  that  is  worst.  But  as  a  man — 
and  a  woman  also — is  known  by  the  company  he 
keeps,  so  is  the  newspaper  reader  to  be  judged  by 
the  kind  of  journal  which  he  buys  regularly  and 
which  he  reads  from  beginning  to  end.  Of  the  forces 
at  work  to  impair  the  national  character,  to  destroy 
the  ideals  which  are  after  all  the  ideals  of  the  Amer 
ican  nation,  few,  if  any,  are  to  be  compared  in 
deadly  and  disintegrating  effect  with  the  action  of 
the  yellow  press.  It  is  a  blot  and  a  stain  upon  Amer 
ican  civilization;  a  school  of  crime  and  evil  ever 
open  and  ever  active ;  a  propaganda  of  sin  and  cor 
ruption  and  falsehood  which  all  the  efforts  of  the 

263 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

churches  and  of  the  educational  institutions  appear 
unable  to  check,  much  less  to  stop. 

The  yellow  press,  in  the  modern  American  society, 
is  the  pirate  of  old  days,  exercising  his  craft  and 
following  his  evil  tendencies.  It  is  found  every 
where  ;  not  a  railway  carriage,  not  a  trolley  car,  not 
a  waiting-room,  not  a  news-stand,  not  a  hotel,  not 
a  theater  or  other  place  of  amusement,  but  it  is 
present  in.  Its  issues  are  seen  in  every  hand:  the 
hands  of  old  men,  of  old  women,  of  young  men,  of 
maidens,  of  schoolboys  and  schoolgirls.  The  lads 
who  rush  about  with  their  raucous  cries  and  their 
bundles  of  infamy,  are  the  apt  pupils  of  the  school. 
They  learn  that  men  and  women  are  ever  ready  to 
peruse  filth  and  falsehood;  that  between  the  clean 
sheet  and  the  foul — and  thank  God,  there  are  clean 
sheets,  and  many  of  them — the  average  reader  will 
take  the  foul  one,  and  they  also  being  infected  with 
the  all-pervading  spirit  of  greed  of  gold,  in  however 
small  quantities,  will  naturally  turn  to  the  readiest 
means  of  earning  the  coveted  dollars. 

The  pupil  in  school,  the  student  in  college  quickly 
realizes  that  it  needs  not  literary  style  to  secure 
acceptance  of  manuscript  by  the  editors  of  these 
disreputable  sheets:  all  that  is  needed  is  the  art  of 
dressing  up  an  incident,  of  ferreting  out  a  scandal, 
of  creating  one  out  of  whole  cloth,  of  defaming  the 
pure,  of  lauding  the  vile,  to  obtain  immediate  recog 
nition  as  "a  bright,  newsy  writer."  And  the  pupil 
in  school,  the  student  in  college,  if  not  strong 
enough  in  character  or  sufficiently  under  the  influ 
ence  of  higher  views  of  life,  takes  to  writing  for  the 


THE    PRESS 

yellow  press  as  a  duck  takes  to  water,  and  thus  adds 
one  more  to  the  forces  of  corruption  and  evil. 

By  way  of  adding  to  its  attractiveness,  the  yel 
low  press  resorts  to  the  extensive  use  of  illustrations. 
The  improvement  in  processes  of  photographic  and 
half-tone  reproductions  has  been  utilized  to  the  ut 
most,  again  especially  with  the  view  of  stimulating 
curiosity  for  all  that  had  best  be  kept  in  the  shadow. 
The  glaring  limelight  of  the  printed  column  is  not 
sufficient,  and  the  aid  of  the  "artist" — Heaven  save 
the  mark! — is  called  in  to  supply  any  possible  omis 
sions  on  the  part  of  the  wholly  unscrupulous  writer 
of  "news."  It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  character  of 
the  illustrations  thus  showered  upon  readers:  the 
heroes  are  criminals,  the  heroines  abandoned  women. 
Now  and  then  amid  the  collection  which  is  in  itself 
an  imposing  Rogues'  Gallery,  appears  the  presenta 
tion  of  some  public  man,  horrified  to  find  himself 
in  such  company;  of  some  unhappy  lady,  of  gentle 
birth  and  breeding,  who,  because  she  has  taken  part 
in  a  function  of  a  wholly  private  nature,  discovers 
to  her  shame  that  she  also  is  gibbeted  with  the  band 
of  adventurers  of  both  sexes,  with  the  prize-fighter, 
with  the  false  coiner,  with  the  forger,  with  the  mur 
derer,  with  the  demi-mondaine. 

And  there  is  not  only  no  redress  for  this  pollu 
tion  ;  there  is  no  protection  against  it.  The  "enter 
prising  reporter,"  as  often  as  not  a  woman  as  a 
man,  coolly  tells  the  victim  that  if  he  or  she  will  not 
give  the  picture  for  reproduction,  it  will  be  obtained 
without  consent.  At  need,  if  the  portrait  is  not  to 
be  had,  another  is  substituted  and  the  name  altered. 

265 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

In  this  simple  fashion  the  yellow  journal  maintains 
with  its  readers  its  assertion  of  being  "live"  and  al 
ways  able  to  gratify  the  public  lust  for  scandal  and 
immorality.  Instances  of  this  method  are  so  numer 
ous  that  every  reader  of  the  papers  can  recall  them. 
As  for  the  victims,  who  cares  what  they  think?  Is 
not  the  land  the  very  paradise  of  liberty?  And  does 
not  liberty  consist  in  destroying  all  privacy  and 
tearing  away  all  modesty  and  all  protection  from 
those  who  are  so  belated  in  their  notions  as  to  sup 
pose  that  the  individual  had  any  rights  as  against 
the  yellow  press? 

Above  the  yellow  press  is  to  be  found  a  large  num 
ber  of  papers  which  are  emerging  from  the  slough, 
and  exhibiting  a  proper  sense  of  the  function  of  the 
newspaper.  They  are  not  wholly  free,  unhappily, 
from  the  characteristics  which,  highly  developed, 
mark  the  lower  and  fouler  class  of  sheets.  They  are 
still  too  apt  to  grant  large  space  to  the  tittle-tattle 
and  scandal  of  which  the  American  public  is  said, 
by  these  very  papers,  to  be  so  enamored.  This,  at 
least,  is  the  conclusion  legitimately  drawn  from  the 
oft  repeated  declaration  of  the  newspapers — and  of 
the  theaters — that  they  give  the  public  what  the  pub 
lic  calls  for.  The  justice  of  this  statement  is  more 
than  open  to  doubt.  The  public  reads  the  papers 
because  the  habit  of  reading  them  has  been  formed, 
but  it  would  read  decent  papers  and  does  read  them. 
If  the  proprietors  of  the  press  were  to  raise  their 
standards  the  public  would  follow  them.  The  remedy 
lies  with  the  press  itself.  The  reform  must  come 
from  within.  There  will  always  be  a  public  for 

266 


THE    PRESS 

sheets  that  pander  to  evil  curiosity  and  to  vicious 
tendencies,  but  it  is  the  height  of  calumny  to  pro 
fess,  as  so  many  newspapers  do,  that  it  is  the  public 
which  is  responsible  for  the  low  standard  of  much 
of  the  periodical  literature  published  in  the  United 
States.  There  is  too  much  sterling  worth  in  the 
people  of  the  land,  too  much  real  perception  of  the 
difference  between  good  and  evil,  too  sound  a  moral 
standard  to  render  it  possible  to  accept  the  verdict 
of  the  press  on  this  point.  No  doubt  the  public  does 
not  manifest  vigorously  enough  its  objection  to  the 
kind  of  pabulum  served  out  to  it;  no  doubt  it  pur 
chases  too  eagerly  and  too  readily  the  issues  of  the 
yellow  press  and  of  the  papers  in  the  higher  stratum, 
but  that  is  a  habit  which  can  be  changed  and  which 
should  be  changed.  Nay,  which  will  be  changed  as 
time  goes  on,  for  it  is  impossible  not  to  notice  the 
steady  upward  trend  of  public  opinion,  a  trend  which 
is  one  of  the  most  gratifying,  one  of  the  most  en 
couraging  signs  of  a  healthy  condition  of  the  public 
mind. 

The  papers  in  the  class  now  under  consideration 
are,  equally  with  the  yellow  journals,  continually 
and  blatantly  proclaiming  their  superiority  as  news 
gatherers  and  affirming  their  superiority  in  this 
respect  to  the  papers  of  the  Old  World.  This  is  one 
of  the  amusing — and  frequent — instances  of  the 
deep-rooted  habit  of  self-glorification,  which  prevails 
in  America  to  an  extent  undreamed  of  in  Europe. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  class  of  papers  referred  to 
is  not  so  much  a  gatherer  of  news  as  a  recorder  of 
tittle-tattle  and  parish  pump  happenings.  Taking 

267 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

an  issue  of  one  of  them  at  haphazard — and  of 
one  of  the  very  best  in  this  respect,  of  a  journal 
whose  editorial  page  is  well  worth  reading  for  the 
soundness  and  general  fairness  of  the  views  it  ex 
pounds — what  does  the  reader,  the  impartial  reader 
find?  Exactly  one  column  and  a  half  of  foreign 
news,  of  which  a  fair  portion  is  of  the  nature  of 
what  the  French  call  faits  divers.  The  pranks  of 
a  goat,  escaped  from  its  pen,  three  accounts  of  mur 
der  and  sudden  death,  an  obituary  notice  of  an  un 
known  woman,  a  canoeing  accident,  a  hope  for  finer 
weather,  a  brief  reference  to  an  important  occur 
rence  in  the  South,  and  a  story  of  a  fire,  constitute 
the  first  page.  There  are  illustrations,  of  which 
the  most  prominent  are  that  of  a  woman  who  figures 
in  a  scandal :  another  that  of  a  boy  who  has  caught 
a  trout ;  another  a  series  of  portraits  of  young 
women  students  who  have  published  a  college  paper, 
the  crude  contents  of  which  are  poured  out  upon  the 
public ;  a  baseball  player,  of  course ;  and  a  pastor, 
utterly  unknown  outside  of  the  small  church  which 
he  is  leaving  "to  better  himself."  There  are,  it  is 
true,  full  accounts  of  the  stock  market,  and  this  part 
of  the  journal  is  edited  with  care  and  has  value,  as 
also  the  excellent  editorial  page.  But  accounts  of 
accidents  and  crimes  form  the  main  part  of  the 
reading  matter,  and  inevitably  suggest  the  Police 
Gazette  style  of  thing. 

This  curious  conglomeration  of  what  is  worth 
while  and  what  is  so  utterly  ephemeral  as  not,  in  good 
sooth,  to  be  worth  wasting  printer's  ink  upon,  is 
the  result  of  two  causes :  the  first,  divided  author- 


THE    PRESS 

itj;  the  second,  pure  and   unadulterated  commer 
cialism. 

There  does  not  appear  to  exist,  in  papers  of  the 
class  to  which  the  one  quoted  from  belongs,  any 
superior,  central  authority.  The  editor-in-chief 
takes  charge  of  the  editorial  page,  and  he  does  his 
work  thoroughly  and  satisfactorily.  But  he  has  no 
apparent  control  over  the  other  parts  of  the  jouraaL 
The  city  editor  is  supreme  over  the  greater  portion 
of  the  twelve  or  fourteen  pages  which  make  up  the 
issue.  He  does  not  trouble,  it  would  seem,  to  ob 
serve  the  nature  or  tendency  of  the  editorials,  and 
consequently  it  is  not  infrequently  the  case  that 
opinions  highly  contradictory  one  to  the  other  ap 
pear  on  different  pages;  on  the  first  in  the  form  of 
scare  heads,  less  lurid,  however,  by  far  than  those 
of  the  yellow  journals,  and  on  the  editorial  page 
in  the  course  of  a  well-thought-out  and  well-written 
leader.  It  is  for  the  reader  to  reconcile,  if  reconcile 
he  can,  these  discrepancies,  but  he  is  so  used  to  them 
that  he  scarcely  notices  them.  Commercialism  is  the 
second  and  more  important  cause,  commercialism 
being,  of  course,  merely  another  way  of  saying  the 
love  of  money.  The  important  point  to  be  contin 
ually  borne  in  mind  by  everyone  in  responsible  po 
sitions  on  the  staff,  is  that  the  paper  must  be  made 
to  pay.  Therefore  every  means  of  bringing  in  addi 
tional  subscribers,  additional  purchasers,  even  if 
only  occasional,  is  resorted  to.  Every  "hayseed" 
celebrating  his  silver  wedding  is  sure  to  find  his 
portrait  and  that  of  his  helpmate  presented  to  the 
weary  eves  of  the  indifferent  reader,  who  cares  not  a 

269 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

jot  whether  Hiram  Grasshopper,  of  Pumpkinville, 
has  or  has  not  enjoyed  marital  felicity  for  twenty- 
five  years  or  twenty-five  seconds.  But  Hiram  and 
his  tribe  will  buy  the  issue  containing  the  portrait. 
Students  in  some  small  institutions  of  learning  and 
"fudge"  are  eager  to  see  themselves  reproduced  in 
the  gallery  perpetually  kept  open  by  the  press,  and 
their  desires  are  readily  gratified,  to  the  ecstasy  of 
the  said  students  and  the  gratification  of  their  par 
ents,  who  forthwith  acquire  numberless  copies  of  the 
paper  to  send  to  their  relatives  and  friends  by  way 
of  showing  how  famous  their  progeny  has  become. 

The  society  reporter — an  impossible  female,  as  a 
rule — has  no  other  reason  for  existence  but  this 
whetting  of  the  public's  desire  to  see  itself  celebrated 
in  print  as  belonging  to  the  fashionable  society  of 
Tompkins'  Crossing  or  Snooks'  Corner.  And  the 
reporter,  be  he  man  or  woman,  never  fails  to  describe 
every  woman  as  a  "society  belle"  and  the  society  she 
pertains  to  as  "the  most  exclusive  set."  All  of 
which  the  so-called  beauty  swallows  whole,  and  pays 
out  her  money  to  distribute  among  her  friends. 

But  this  is  not  newsgathering,  nor  is  the  paper 
which  indulges  in  this  class  of  padding  a  real  news 
paper  in  this  respect.  It  is,  however,  a  common 
class  and  one  that  has  many  admirers  and  votaries, 
for,  after  all,  what  do  these  worthy  citizens  of  a 
great  country  care  for  the  events  of  importance  in 
their  own  land  or  abroad?  The  important  things, 
the  mighty  events  are  the  local  bazaar,  the  local 
"tea-fight,"  the  church  sociable,  the  school  com 
mencement,  the  broken  engagement  between  Silas 

210 


THE   PRESS 

(the  youth  who  delivers  milk,  but  is  represented  as 
"a  scion  of  one  of  our  oldest  families")  and  Mary 
Jane  (whose  mother  takes  in  washing,  but  who  is 
spoken  of  as  one  of  "the  leaders  of  fashion").  It  is 
these  things  which,  duly  chronicled  in  the  columns 
of  the  daily  paper,  make  that  paper  successful  in 
that  particular  community,  and  consequently  it  is 
these  things  to  which  the  soundly  business  and  prac 
tical  management  gives  the  most  space. 

The  United  States  has  become  a  world-power. 
This  fact  is  insisted  on  most  earnestly  by  the  press 
of  all  shades  of  opinion  and  of  all  sorts  of  character. 
No  one  seeks  to  deny  it,  for  it  is  patent.  Only,  one 
wonders  how  it  is  that  the  bulk  of  the  press  of  a 
world-power  takes  so  little  cognizance,  compara 
tively,  of  world  affairs?  Of  the  countries  with 
which  the  United  States  is  in  closest  touch,  little  is 
said  in  the  press.  A  few  brief  telegraphic  dispatches 
serve  to  tell  all  that  the  public  cares  to  know,  ap 
parently,  of  what  goes  on  in  Great  Britain,  in 
France,  in  Germany.  If  a  revolution  breaks  out  in 
some  South  American  state  it  does  attract  mention, 
but  it  is  soon  relegated  to  "Brief  Paragraphs." 
Important  debates  in  parliaments  of  Europe  are 
alluded  to,  but  never  is  the  debate  itself  reported  at 
all  fully.  Foreign  affairs  have  acquired  a  certain 
value  of  late  years,  yet  one  would  hardly  gather  the 
fact  from  the  perusal  of  the  ordinary  American 
newspaper,  which  claims,  at  the  same  time,  to  excel 
in  its  own  line  as  a  purveyor  of  world  news.  The 
balance  is  unequal,  the  selection  odd. 

There  remains  to  be  spoken  of  a  third  class  of 
271 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

newspapers,  the  honor  of  the  business.  These  are 
the  journals  whose  reputation  is  so  well  established, 
whose  management  is  so  superior,  that  they  can  af 
ford  to  disregard  the  claptrap  of  the  yellow  press 
and  the  parish  pump  news  of  the  better  sort  above 
the  yellows — best  of  all,  who  can  afford  to  dispense 
with  the  picture  gallery,  and  to  give  news  in  the 
place  of  sensation,  information  in  the  place  of  mis 
representation.  These  papers,  and  they  are  to  be 
found  in  every  principal  city  of  the  United  States, 
are  as  good  as  any  published  anywhere  else;  they 
are  admirably  edited;  well  printed;  full  of  useful 
and  interesting  matter ;  and  have  a  decided  influence 
on  men's  minds,  for  it  is  natural  that  those  who  read 
them  habitually  should  learn  from  them  how  to 
think  on  public  questions  and  how  to  treat  the 
affairs  of  the  State  or  the  municipality.  Scare 
heads  and  spicy  "space"  reports  are  unknown  in 
them;  gossip  is  practically  banished  from  them; 
crime  and  vulgarity  do  not  obtain  admission  to  the 
front  page,  but  are  either  excluded  or  relegated  to 
some  remote  and  lonely  corner,  where  they  will  not 
infect  and  disgust  the  decent  reader.  These  papers 
are  true  representatives  of  the  energy  and  push 
of  the  American  journalist;  far  more  so  than 
those  sheets  which  are  ever  on  the  watch  for  what 
is  technically  known  as  a  "scoop,"  and  is  usually 
a  fabrication,  or,  at  the  least,  a  wild  exaggeration. 
Their  leaders  are  sound  and  sensible;  their  re 
ports  are  accurate;  their  news  full  and  substantial. 
They  are  the  pick  of  the  lot,  and  they  are  those 
which  have  the  smallest  circulation,  but  an  influ- 


THE   PRESS 

ence  for  good  which  it  is  difficult  to  overestimate. 

There  is  a  form  of  the  newspaper  which  cannot  be 
overlooked:  the  Sunday  issue.  This  is  confined  to 
the  yellow  press  and  the  second  class,  the  journals 
of  the  highest  rank  not  permitting  themselves  in 
dulgence  in  the  publication  of  what  is  practically  a 
weekly  magazine,  made  up  of  the  most  varied  ele 
ments. 

The  Sunday  paper  is  now  an  institution,  and  in 
certain  respects  a  regrettable  one,  but  which  has 
its  raison  d'etre.  The  day  of  rest  is  one  on  which,  in 
the  winter  more  particularly,  the  average  American 
does  not  quite  know  what  to  do  with  himself.  In  the 
summer  season  there  are  the  resorts  open  for  amuse 
ments;  there  is  the  country,  rendered  so  accessible 
by  the  numerous  lines  of  electric  cars ;  there  is  the 
easily  enjoyed  pleasure  of  idling  on  a  bench  in  one 
of  the  beautiful  parks  to  be  found  in  every  city 
worthy  of  the  name.  But  in  winter  the  meteorologi 
cal  conditions  are  unfavorable  for  outdoor  enjoy 
ment,  save  walking — and  walking  is  not  a  favorite 
pastime  of  the  American.  The  house  holds  out  su 
perior  attractions :  not  the  fireside,  for  in  towns  and 
cities,  except,  perhaps,  in  the  South,  the  fireside  is 
almost  non-existent,  the  radiator  or  the  register 
having  taken  its  place.  It  is  pleasanter  to  remain 
indoors,  moreover,  than  to  go  out  when  the  ther 
mometer  indicates  below  zero  or  when  a  wild  snow 
storm  paralyzes  traffic.  It  is  then  that  the  Sunday 
paper  has  its  innings.  It  is  the  solace  and  comfort 
of  the  multitude,  and  it  is  for  that  multitude,  for 
that  democratic  population,  that  it  is  published.  It 

273 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

is  not  intended  for  the  intelligent  man,  for  the  re 
fined  woman,  for  the  student,  for  the  poet;  it  is 
frankly  meant  for  the  masses,  and  the  masses  show 
their  appreciation  of  the  fact  by  purchasing  it 
greedily  and  reading  it  through  and  through,  litter 
ing  the  streets,  the  cars,  the  hotel  public  rooms  with 
its  scattered  sheets. 

The  Sunday  paper  is  a  hodge-podge  of  scraps  of 
so-called  "news."  It  has  a  little  on  foreign  affairs, 
usually  in  the  shape  of  a  letter  retailing  the  "fash 
ionable"  gossip  of  London  and  Paris,  less  of  the 
latter  than  the  former.  It  has  a  little  about  the 
doings  at  Washington;  talk  about  the  next  Presi 
dential  nomination ;  chatter  about  social  matters  in 
the  capital;  and  it  has  columns  of  parish  pump 
babble ;  columns  of  reports  of  games,  football,  base 
ball,  bowling,  track  athletics — according  to  the  sea 
son  of  the  year;  pages  about  "society"  and  its  per 
formances,  the  more  extraordinary  the  better;  about 
actors  and  especially  about  actresses,  whose  counter 
feit  presentments  embellish  the  vast  expanse  of  the 
printed  page ;  elaborate  information  on  the  latest 
modes,  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  Irish  "help"  eager 
to  emulate  the  "style"  of  their  richer  sisters ;  fiction, 
of  the  most  sensational  variety:  in  a  word,  a  com 
mingling  of  all  that  can  in  any  way  interest  the 
tnany  readers,  with  multifarious  tastes,  who  become 
purchasers  of  the  bulky  issue.  Comic  pages,  in 
which  the  comic  is  almost  invariably  gross  and  vul 
gar;  collections  of  stories  revamped  and  sent  forth 
anew,  albeit  tired  and  worn  by  their  centuries  of 
wanderings  through  many  lands;  jokes  hoary  with 

274 


THE    PRESS 

age,  but  offered  as  choice  specimens  of  that  Amer 
ican  humor  which  is  declared  to  be  so  superior  to 
that  of  all  other  nations  ancient  and  modern;  ar 
ticles  on  subjects  of  real  interest,  side  by  side  with 
futilities  that  are  so  inconceivably  stupid  as  to 
astound  the  intelligent  observer. 

Yet  the  Sunday  paper  has  its  good  points,  and  in 
its  incomplete  way  serves  a  useful  purpose.  It 
creates  and  develops  the  liking  for  reading,  and  cer 
tainly  awakens  in  many  minds  a  desire  for  fuller  and 
more  accurate  information  on  many  of  the  questions 
it  touches  upon.  It  contains  very  often  articles  of 
real  worth,  which  impart  information  well  worth 
spreading,  and  which  reach  countless  thousands  who 
else  would  never  learn  much  that  is  of  use  to  them. 
It  discusses  political  themes  occasionally  with  vigor 
and  clearness,  and  in  so  far  aids  in  the  training  of 
the  masses,  which,  thanks  to  universal  suffrage,  one 
of  the  banes  of  good  government  in  the  United 
States  as  elsewhere  where  education  is  not  general 
and  thorough,  hold  more  than  the  balance  of  power. 
It  enables  very  many  who  have  had  no  opportunity 
to  follow  up  their  elementary  education,  to  obtain 
at  least  a  view  of  topics  far  beyond  the  range  of 
their  daily  lives,  which  are,  to  some  extent,  broad 
ened  and  helped  thereby. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  Sunday  paper,  like  many 
another  manifestation  of  American  enterprise,  is 
yet  but  at  the  outset  of  its  usefulness.  It  has  come 
to  stay,  and  while  its  presence  is  lamented  by  many, 
while  the  character  of  its  contents  is  often  unfortu 
nate,  it  does  not  follow  that  substantial  improve- 

275 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

ment  will  not  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  general  up 
lifting  of  public  opinion  and  public  standards 
throughout  the  country.  At  present  it  is  a  miti 
gated  nuisance ;  in  the  future  it  may  well  prove  a 
valuable  addition  to  the  forces  that  make  for  good. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  great  bulk  of  the 
population  is  not  church-going.  There  are  churches 
galore  in  every  city  and  town,  but  their  number  is 
absurdly  out  of  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  the 
population.  And  numerous  as  they  are  they  are  not 
always  filled.  The  teachings  of  the  pulpit  would 
fail  to  reach  as  large  a  part  of  the  public  as  they 
now  reach  were  it  not  for  the  press,  which  in  its 
week-day  issues  reports  the  most  notable  addresses 
— or  those  the  authors  of  which  have  been  careful 
to  send  them  to  a  reporter — and  in  its  SunHay  issue 
prints  very  frequently  an  address  or  sermon  written 
especially  for  the  non-church-goer. 

When  the  sense  of  proportion  is  better  developed, 
when  the  managers  of  these  bulky  sheets  better  un 
derstand  the  relative  value  of  the  matter  they  print, 
when  they  more  clearly  perceive  the  immense  influ 
ence  for  good  of  which  they  may  be  the  instruments, 
they  will  modify  their  publications  and  their  papers 
will  be  a  valuable  force  in  the  community.  They 
can  be  made  to  become  so. 


XVI 
FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

In  few  matters  has  there  been  such  a  marked 
change  in  the  United  States  as  in  the  relations  with 
foreign  powers,  and  especially  with  Great  Britain. 
The  change  is  very  significant  of  the  altered  influ 
ences  at  work  within  the  nation,  influences  which 
have  much  to  do  with  the  point  of  view  taken  by 
the  press  and  the  people  at  large.  Not  many  years 
ago  the  self-respecting  "man  in  the  street"  consid 
ered  himself  bound  to  declaim  against  Britain  and 
everything  British.  That  unfortunate  country  was 
even  more  "perfidious  Albion"  to  him  than  it  ever 
was  to  the  great  Napoleon.  He  saw  her  hand  in 
nearly  every  disaster,  domestic  or  foreign;  he  sus 
pected  her  interference  in  every  election  that  ran 
counter  to  his  wishes ;  he  wished  her  harm,  intensest 
harm,  with  a  whole  heart;  he  rejoiced  over  her  mis 
fortunes,  crowed  over  her  mistakes,  and  thanked 
God  that  he  was  not  an  Englishman.  Here  again 
there  were  exceptions,  as  there  are  to  everything, 
but  these  exceptions  were  few  and  far  between,  and 
did  not  manifest  themselves  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation. 

Toward  France  the  feeling  was  more  humane,  if 
277 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

not  much  more  cordial.  At  least  France  had  once 
again,  and  resolutely,  cast  off  the  errors  of  Empire 
and  Monarchy,  and  had  entered  upon  a  career  of 
greatness  as  an  imitator  of  the  United  States.  It 
could  not  quite  be  expected  to  approach  the  latter 
in  glory  and  honor,  but  at  all  events  it  was  making 
a  praiseworthy  effort  to  emulate  the  finest  country 
in  the  world,  and  to  be  republican  and  democratic. 

Russia  had  a  place  privileged.  Tradition  had  it, 
and  has  it  still, — for  the  wily  diplomatists  of  the 
autocratic  realm  have  taken  care  to  perpetuate  it — 
that  Russia  had  shown  herself  the  friend  of  the 
United  States  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War.  It  had 
done  nothing  of  the  sort  in  particular,  but  tradition 
and  legend  constitute,  as  has  been  wittily  said,  the 
true  history  believed  in  by  the  masses.  That  there 
was  any  incongruity  in  a  democratic  country  dis 
playing  warm  affection  toward  the  worst  autocracy 
in  the  civilized  world,  did  not  appear  to  dawn  upon 
the  Americans.  It  did  not  prevent,  later,  the 
French  Republic  from  making  close  alliance  with  the 
same  land. 

Germany  was  looked  down  upon  with  amusing  in 
difference,  tinged  with  contempt,  for  it  was  some 
what  absurd  in  that  piecemeal  empire,  held  together 
by  a  Prussian  sovereign,  to  put  forth  ambitions  as  a 
world-power.  That  it  had  a  splendid  army  was  un 
deniable;  that  the  army  had  proved  its  spirit  and 
excellence  in  a  great  war,  was  admitted,  but  then  the 
war  had  been  with  another  European  country,  and 
one  manifestly  enfeebled  by  a  prolonged  dose  of 
Imperialism.  This  weakened  any  conclusions  that 

278 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

might  hastily  be  drawn  from  the  completeness  of  the 
success  won  by  the  German  arms. 

Other  countries  did  not  greatly  preoccupy  the 
man  in  the  street.  They  existed  doubtless,  but 
mainly  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  the  land  of  the 
free  with  fruit-peddlers  and  cheap  labor — the  great 
attack  on  that  pernicious  institution  not  having 
then  been  developed  in  its  full  beauty.  Turkey, 
Italy,  were  of  no  particular  account ;  Austria-Hun 
gary  was  not  much  thought  of.  The  Northern 
realms  of  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark  were  prob 
ably  all  right,  and  caused  no  disturbance  to  the 
peace  of  the  world.  Spain,  after  a  time,  came  more 
to  the  front.  It  held  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  the 
former  a  most  desirable  possession  most  lamentably 
misgoverned.  It  lay  so  conveniently  close  to  the 
shores  of  the  United  States  that  the  idea  that  Provi 
dence — the  Providence  represented  by  the  fish-eagle 
whose  wings  are  deployed  above  the  escutcheon  of 
Stars  and  Stripes — had  manifestly  intended  it  for 
American  occupation  early  took  root  in  the  popu 
lar  mind,  and  the  man  in  the  street  grew  hot  as  he 
talked  of  the  foulness  of  Spanish  corruption. 

When  the  French  started  their  celebrated  Repub 
lic,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
framed  their  first  Constitution,  they  prefaced  it 
with  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man.  They 
were  so  enthusiastic  over  the  perfection  of  this  feat 
that  they  forthwith  proceeded  to  declare  to  the 
European  world  that  the  time  had  come  to  destroy, 
extirpate  and  annihilate  all  kings,  emperors,  princes 
and  other  powers,  and  to  substitute  in  their  stead 

279 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  beneficent  system  invented  by  the  energumens 
of  the  Republic.  They  marched  their  armies  into 
Italy  and  Austria  and  Germany  and  would  have 
fain  landed  them  in  England  also.  Their  forces 
proclaimed  everywhere  the  blessed  Rights  of  Man, 
the  first  and  chief  of  which,  in  practice,  was  that  the 
French  should  tyrannize  over  every  land  in  virtue 
of  their  marvelous  discovery,  or  invention,  which 
ever  it  might  be  called.  They  were  in  deadly  earnest, 
and  sincerely  convinced  that  they  were  called  by  the 
Supreme  Being — so  long  as  He  lasted,  for  presently 
He  also  was  found  to  be  an  inconvenient  incumbrance 
and  a  relic  of  a  barbarous  past  of  ignorance  and 
wretchedness,  intellectual  and  physical — to  prop 
agate  throughout  the  world  the  glorious  principles 
of  the  Revolution,  together  with  the  efficacious  con 
verter  that  bore  the  name  of  good  Doctor  Guillotine. 
Their  enthusiasm  for  Bonaparte  was  largely  due  at 
the  first  to  the  belief  that  this  wonderful  master  of 
the  art  of  war  was  working  with  a  single  eye  for 
the  triumph  of  those  ideas.  They  found  out  their 
mistake  presently,  but  they  kept  on  then  insisting 
that  the  European  world  should  at  least  be  French. 

Well,  the  average  American  was,  not  long  since, 
quite  of  the  same  opinion  and  practised  pretty  nearly 
the  same  eminent  virtues.  He  was  equally  convinced, 
and  is  now,  that  his  form  of  government  is  so  ut 
terly  superior  to  every  other  ever  adopted  by  or 
forced  upon  any  body  of  men,  that  it  was  his  solemn 
duty  to  impose  it  upon  all  lands.  There  were  dif 
ficulties  in  the  realization  of  this  superb  project: 
distance;  the  lack  of  a  sufficiently  large  army  and 

280 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

navy;  stupid  obstinacy  on  the  part  of  European 
powers ;  crass  ignorance  on  the  side  of  the  European 
populations ;  an  indisposition  on  the  part  of  the  man 
in  the  street  himself  to  abandon  the  making  of  money 
for  the  shedding  of  blood.  A  modification  of  the 
plan  adopted  and  carried  out  by  France  in  the  good 
old  days  became  necessary.  The  superiority  of  the 
American  democracy  must  be  made  so  plain  to  all 
men  that  all  would  clamor  to  have  it  adopted  in 
the  land  of  their  birth.  The  supremacy  of  Amer 
ican  ideas  must  be  preached  in  unmistakable  ac 
cents,  so  that  even  the  deaf  should  hear,  and  the  fool 
should  understand.  So  far  nothing  better  could  be 
desired,  and  no  one,  even  the  most  fossilized  of 
European  Conservatives  could  take  offense  at  the 
program  for  the  conversion  of  the  earth  to  a  great 
and  stupendous  imitation  of  the  great  and  stupen 
dous  United  States  of  America. 

It  was  in  the  application  of  the  doctrine  that  the 
peculiar  spirit  of  certain  portions  of  the  American 
public  manifested  itself.  Of  all  foreign  countries 
there  was  one  above  all  which  it  was  essential  to 
reduce  to  a  fitting  sense  of  its  inferiority  and  in 
capacity  to  exist  as  a  power,  whether  a  world  or  a 
parish  power,  and  that  country  was  Great  Britain. 
So  the  efforts  of  the  patriots,  as  they  styled  them 
selves,  were  mainly  directed  to  make  the  British  un 
happy,  to  bring  them  to  a  realizing  sense  of  their 
pettiness  and  inefficiency ;  to  expose  to  the  world  the 
greed,  the  meanness,  the  selfishness  of  Britain;  to 
proclaim  to  all  and  sundry  the  wretched  condition 
of  the  lands  over  which  floated  the  Union  Jack: 

281 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Egypt,  India,  Ireland,  above  all  Ireland,  which  had 
sent  so  many  of  its  sons  and  daughters  to  America, 
and  kept  on  sending  them  just  as  fast  as  the  steam 
ers  could  convey  them  across  the  Atlantic. 

This  pastime  of  twisting  the  lion's  tail,  as  it  was 
called,  flourished  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land ;  it  furnished  the  press  with  an  inexhaus 
tible  theme;  it  provided  demagogues  and  Fourth  of 
July  orators  with  a  superabundance  of  material  ad 
mirably  adapted  to  the  comprehension  of  their  audi 
ences;  it  enabled  stately  senators  to  work  off 
speeches  which  else  had  not  been  listened  to ;  it  made 
the  fortunes  of  statesmen;  it  was  a  rich  sport,  the 
more  attractive  that  it  was  confessedly  devoid  of 
even  the  smallest  particle  of  danger,  for  the  British 
lion  refused  to  be  roused  to  wrath  and  watched  the 
pranks  of  its  distant  revilers  with  a  calm  peace  that 
was  peculiarly  odious  to  the  more  energetic  among 
them.  A  sport  that  has  passed  away,  alas !  mourn 
fully  reflects  the  few  who  would  even  now  indulge 
in  it,  could  they  only  muster  a  sufficiency  of  audi 
tors  and  spectators.  They  recall  the  palmy  days 
when  the  least  allusion  to  England  sufficed  to  evoke 
the  most  hysterical  demonstrations  on  the  part  of 
an  otherwise  well-balanced  people,  and  they  patheti 
cally  remark  that  the  times  are  out  of  joint  in 
deed. 

The  anti-British  spirit  is  by  no  means  dead,  how 
ever,  and  the  causes  which  gave  it  the  vigor  and 
asperity  that  distinguished  it  have  not  wholly  dis 
appeared.  The  tendency  to  bluster  and  threaten, 
which  marked  American  relations  with  other  foreign 

282 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

powers  as  well  as  with  England,  is  dying  out,  and  at 
the  present  time  is  rightly  considered  absurd  by  all 
the  sensible  men  in  the  country.  This  fault — it  may 
be  permitted  to  term  it  that — arose  in  large  measure 
from  the  sense  of  growing  strength.  The  United 
States  was  very  much  like  a  young  fellow  whose 
muscular  strength  is  developing  rapidly,  and  who, 
carried  away  by  the  very  exuberance  of  his  animal 
spirits,  is  apt  to  be  rough  and  even  somewhat  brutal 
without  the  least  inclination  to  harm.  But  as  soon 
as  the  lad  realizes  his  strength,  as  soon  as  he  per 
ceives  that  the  mere  display  of  it,  on  occasions  when 
it  is  out  of  place  and  uncalled-for,  affects  him  un 
favorably,  his  common  sense  comes  to  his  aid  and 
he  learns  to  husband  his  strength  for  the  time  when 
it  should  really  be  necessary  to  put  it  forth.  He 
does  not  care  or  wish  to  be  brutal  or  aggressive :  it  is 
only  ignorance  that  has  made  him  so ;  ignorance  fol 
lowed  by  knowledge  of  his  activity  and  energy,  and 
the  desire  to  prove  it  to  all  and  sundry.  But  once 
he  sees  that  not  only  is  his  strength  recognized,  but 
gladly  recognized,  and  the  proper  application  of  it 
applauded,  the  motive  for  needless  exhibition  of  it 
is  removed. 

The  United  States  has  passed  through  some  such 
experience.  The  people  could  not  help  feeling  that 
they  were  becoming,  that  they  had  become  a  mighty 
nation ;  they  could  not  shut  their  eyes,  even  had  they 
wished  to  do  so,  to  the  fact  that  their  country  was 
becoming  and  had  become  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  powerful  on  earth.  Their  susceptibility  less 
ened;  their  readiness  to  take  offense  diminished;  the 

283 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

steadying  influence  of  reflection  and  responsibility 
made  itself  felt,  and  they  assumed  an  attitude  worth 
ier  of  a  mighty  and  enlightened  land. 

Cut  off,  as  they  were,  from  immediate  communion 
with  the  nations  of  Europe,  their  interests,  their 
modes  of  thought,  their  principles  of  action  in  gen 
eral  different  from  those  of  the  countries  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  feeling  that  their  pur 
poses  and  their  methods  were  usually  misunder 
stood  and  grossly  misrepresented,  keenly  alive  to  the 
ridicule  freely  showered  upon  them,  imbued  with  the 
susceptibility  of  youth,  rebelling  against  the  in 
adequate  conception  of  their  strength  ajid  progress 
which  was  so  general  and  so  firmly  impressed  upon 
the  Europeans,  they  naturally  exhibited  a  tendency 
to  assert  themselves  which  took  the  shape  of  offen 
sive  attacks  upon  the  forms  of  government  estab 
lished  in  the  Old  World,  of  contempt  for  the  habits 
and  manners  of  the  inhabitants  thereof,  of  insults 
and  pin  pricks,  unworthy,  no  doubt,  of  a  nation 
claiming  greatness  and  influence,  but  easily  intelli 
gible  once  the  causes  of  that  conduct  were  examined 
into. 

From  the  moment  that  Europe  in  general,  and 
Great  Britain  in  particular,  woke  to  the  fact  that 
the  far  distant  Republic  was  really  a  nation,  a 
power,  able  and  ready  to  maintain  its  dignity,  that 
the  mighty  struggle  it  had  passed  through  was  at 
once  colossal  and  fraught  with  tremendous  conse 
quences  to  the  human  race,  that  Americans  had 
won  for  themselves  the  place  they  clearly  occupied  in 
the  world,  recognition — though  belated  and,  in  some 

284 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS 

respects,  grudgingly  granted — changed  the  disposi 
tion  of  the  Americans  and  induced  them  to  assume  a 
tone  more  consonant  with  their  own  real  greatness, 
their  own  importance,  their  own  share  in  the  direc 
tion  of  the  world's  affairs.  No  country,  conscious 
of  the  intensity  and  vigor  of  its  national  life,  can 
submit  to  be  treated  as  the  United  States  was  too 
often  treated  by  the  chancelleries  of  Europe,  by  the 
press  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  by  the  speakers 
who  had  the  ear  of  the  public.  That  its  ways  were 
not  the  ways  of  the  Old  World  did  not  seem  to  its 
people,  and  with  perfect  justice,  any  reason  why 
they  should  be  considered  unworthy  of  fullest  equal 
ity  with  the  most  ancient  realms,  or  should  be 
scorned  or  laughed  at  as  beings  strangely  different 
from  the  accepted  type  prevailing  in  Europe.  Na 
tions  and  individuals  alike  have  their  sense  of  self- 
respect,  their  sense  of  deserving  respect  at  the  hands 
of  others,  and  when  that  is  denied,  the  high-spirited 
individual  and  the  high-spirited  nation  alike  will 
fiercely  resent  the  stigma  of  inferiority  sought  to  be 
fastened  upon  them. 

The  Americans  are  not,  in  their  nature,  antagonis 
tic  to  Europeans ;  they  are  too  close  to  them  in  in 
numerable  ways :  they  share  with  them  traditions 
which,  if  less  strong  in  their  land,  have  a  common 
origin  and  form  a  connecting  link;  they  are  as 
capable  in  every  respect  of  solving  the  problems  of 
life  and  government  which  come  up  incessantly  on 
either  side  of  the  ocean;  they  have  as  clear  a  per 
ception  of  civilization ;  they  understand  the  reign  of 
law  just  as  well,  even  if  they  do  revolt  against  it,  and 

285 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  feeling  that  they  were  looked  down  upon  by 
Europe  was  absolutely  unbearable  to  a  proud  race, 
whose  deeds,  if  not  equaling  those  of  the  fighting 
races  in  bloodshed,  are  remarkable  in  the  fields  of 
industry  and  science — a  race  which  has  demonstrated 
the  falsity  of  the  idea  that  the  democratic  form  of 
government  is  applicable  to  a  small  territory  only, 
and  which  has  bestowed  upon  millions  of  immigrants 
from  the  Old  World  benefits  that  could  never  have 
been  theirs  in  their  native  country. 

It  must  be  added  that  the  irritation  felt  toward 
Great  Britain,  especially,  has  been  sedulously  fos 
tered  upon  other  grounds  and  that  methods  of  wilful 
misrepresentation  have  been  and  are  still  too  fre 
quently  resorted  to  by  those  who  seek  to  satisfy 
their  hatred  of  a  mighty  empire  or  to  exalt  their 
own  land  at  the  expense  of  others.  Several  causes 
have  been  at  work  to  develop  and  maintain  the  anti- 
British  spirit,  so  visible  even  yet  in  certain  circles. 
It  is  worth  while  to  examine  these  seriatim. 

The  first  is  tradition.  "The  evil  that  men  do  lives 
after  them,"  and  a  city,  a  nation  preserves  long  the 
memory  of  wrongs  inflicted  upon  it.  There  is  Ge 
neva,  for  instance,  the  Calvinistic  Rome,  which  to 
the  present  time  celebrates  its  successful  resistance 
to  the  night  attack  directed  against  it  in  the  six 
teenth  century  by  the  then  Duke  of  Savoy,  former 
lord  of  the  town.  The  feelings  of  hatred  and  vin- 
dictiveness  which  of  yore  inspired  the  celebration, 
and  which  were  fully  as  potent  as  the  sentiment  of 
gratitude  to  the  Almighty  for  the  deliverance  vouch 
safed,  have  practically  died  away.  The  Genevese 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

of  to-day  entertain  no  dislike  of  the  Savoyards  or 
of  the  representative  of  the  ducal  race,  but  they 
maintain  their  anniversary  and  cherish  the  abhor 
rence  of  their  foes  of  more  than  three  hundred  years 
ago.  The  French  are  very  good  friends  with  the 
English,  but  Joan  of  Arc's  burning  and  the  defeat 
of  Trafalgar  and  the  rout  of  Waterloo  stick  in  their 
memory.  They  are  not  in  the  least  affected  by  these 
past  events  in  their  intercourse  with  England  now 
adays  ;  the  entente  cordiale  is  none  the  less  cordial 
because  of  the  reminiscence  of  them  and  they  are  well 
aware  that  the  English,  in  common  with  themselves, 
deprecate  and  condemn  the  execution  of  their  great 
patriot.  But  they  properly  and  rightly  keep  on 
placing  wreaths  upon  the  pedestal  of  her  statues, 
and  they  celebrate  her  anniversary  with  pious  and 
patriotic  enthusiasm. 

But  the  Genevese  and  the  French  alike  have  other 
memories  of  foes  striven  with  and  overcome;  the 
Genevese  are  Swiss  as  well  as  Genevese;  they  share 
the  inspiriting  history  of  the  little  Republic;  they 
recall  Morat  and  Granson  and  Tell  and  Gessler 
with  the  same  joy  as  do  the  inhabitants  of  Zurich, 
Uri  or  any  other  of  the  Four  Cantons  of  early  days. 
The  French  fought  the  English  for  a  hundred  long 
years ;  they  fought  the  Spaniards ;  they  fought  the 
Italians ;  they  fought  the  Prussians  and  the  Aus- 
trians  ;  they  won  victories  and  they  suffered  defeats  ; 
at  sea  they  had  a  glorious  record  followed  by  one  of 
terrible  disasters.  Their  memories  are  fuller  and 
more  varied;  they  have  not  concentrated  them  upon 
one  incident,  upon  one  war.  That  is  the  case  with 

287 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  Americans.  The  prominent  event  in  American 
history  is  the  War  of  Independence ;  next  to  it  comes 
the  War  of  1812.  Both  these  wars  were  fought 
against  England.  The  War  of  Secession  was  an  in 
ternal  strife,  a  civil  contest,  and  while  tremendous, 
fierce  and  bloody,  it  was  fought  between  Americans. 
The  recent  Spanish  war  is  not  a  great  event;  car 
ried  on  against  a  nation  plainly  incapable  of  re 
sistance  to  the  overpowering  might  of  the  Republic, 
that  contest  has  not  aroused  in  the  country  any 
enthusiasm  and  is  not  looked  back  upon  with  any 
great  pride.  The  one  great  nation  with  which 
Americans  have  fought,  the  one  great  struggle  from 
which  they  have  emerged  with  triumph  is  the  strug 
gle  with  the  Britain  of  George  III  and  the  Britain 
that  was  engaged  in  the  Napoleonic  wars.  The 
whole  of  the  military  glories  of  the  country  cluster 
round  these  two  events,  and  it  is  not  forgetting  the 
memorable  battles  of  the  Civil  War  to  say  this. 
These  battles  are  on  another  plane;  there  is  no  dis 
position  now,  there  scarcely  ever  was  any,  to  mag 
nify  them  or  to  draw  satisfaction  from  them,  be 
cause  of  the  nature  of  the  strife  out  of  which  they 
arose.  Every  Northerner  recognizes  the  fact  that 
there  could  be  but  one  outcome  to  that  struggle: 
the  defeat  of  the  South.  There  was  no  real  glory 
to  be  won  in  a  fratricidal  death-grapple;  sacrifices, 
abnegation,  bitter  sorrows,  woeful  disruptions  of 
families  as  of  the  Union  itself,  but  nothing  that  men 
would  love  to  look  back  upon  with  unmixed  pride. 
Both  sides  fought  well  and  gamely ;  both  proved  their 
devotion  to  the  cause,  and  both  were  immeasurably 

288 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

glad  when  at  last  the  inevitable  surrender  came,  and 
the  Blue  and  the  Gray  once  more  were  united. 

It  was  different  with  the  War  of  Independence 
and  with  the  War  of  1812.  In  the  former,  as  in  the 
latter,  the  young  Republic  was  matched  against  one 
of  the  two  greatest  military  powers  in  the  world, 
and  in  both  her  arms  proved  triumphant  more  than 
once.  That  of  itself  would  not  have  created  or  per 
petuated  a  feeling  of  animosity  toward  the  country 
of  the  foe,  but  the  circumstances  which  led  to  these 
conflicts  were  such  as  to  give  rise  to  the  bitterest 
feeling  on  both  sides,  and  made  between  them  a 
breach  which  was  to  be  long  in  healing.  The  com 
mercial  interests  involved  in  the  War  of  1812,  the 
national  self-respect  felt  to  be  at  stake,  embittered 
that  contest,  and  the  fruits  of  the  two  wars  taken 
together  were  the  angry  and  hateful  spirit  which 
could  not  speedily  die  away,  and  which,  for  pur 
poses  of  their  own,  politicians  kept  alive,  fanning  the 
flame  of  slander  and  misrepresentation,  and  teaching 
garbled  accounts  of  the  origins  and  sequelae  of  the 
conflict. 

Even  now  most  of  the  histories  of  the  United 
States  used  in  the  public  schools  give  but  an  imper 
fect  and  erroneous  view  of  a  momentous  event,  these 
histories  being,  as  a  rule,  rather  partisan  accounts 
than  impartial  statements  of  fact;  intended  not  so 
much  to  teach  history  as  to  conserve  a  tradition 
of  hostility  excited  by  injustice  and  ungenerous 
treatment  of  the  thirteen  colonies ;  to  impress  the 
minds  of  the  young  with  the  belief  that  tKe  wrongs 
inflicted  were  the  work  of  the  nation  instead  of  being 

289 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

mainly  the  work  of  an  obstinate  sovereign,  deaf  to 
sense  and  reason,  resolved  to  go  his  way,  and  reck 
less  of  the  consequences  to  a  land  which  he  ruled  over 
but  of  which  he  was  not.  These  histories  do  not, 
as  a  rule,  tell  how  unpopular  the  war  was  in  Eng 
land,  as  also  in  the  colonies,  nor  how  leaders  in  the 
old  country  refused  to  have  act  or  part  in  it.  The 
object  has  not  been  history,  but  popular  legend,  and 
the  result  has  been  a  totally  false  impression  of  the 
policy  and  conduct  of  Britain  then  and  since. 

A  young  and  spirited  people  finds  it  difficult  to 
forgive  or  forget.  For  a  very  long  period,  smart 
ing  under  the  sense  of  injustice,  a  sense  which  grew 
keener  as  the  sense  of  power  grew  also,  the  Amer 
icans  could  not  bring  themselves  to  realize  that  the 
Britain  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  democratic 
Britain,  was  different  from  that  which,  governed  by 
a  George,  had  denied  them  what  they  looked  upon  as 
their  inalienable  rights. 

Then  came  the  Civil  War,  which  set  the  North 
against  the  South  and  caused  complications  in  the 
relations  between  these  two  parts  of  the  country 
and  the  great  European  states.  The  advantages 
which,  commercially,  the  business  men  of  Britain 
were  quick  to  see  might  be  derived  from  the  conflict 
between  the  two  parts  of  the  Union  were  naturally 
enough  availed  of,  to  the  fierce  wrath  of  the  North. 
The  Trent  affair  added  oil  to  the  blaze,  and  Eng 
land  already  hated,  was  more  cordially  detested  than 
ever.  The  ravages  of  the  Alabama  and  the  fitting- 
out  of  ships  intended  to  prey  upon  Northern  com 
merce,  the  running  of  the  blockade,  spite  of  many 

290 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

captures  and  of  the  ever-growing  risk,  were  addi 
tional  reasons  for  the  bitterness  which  daily  grew 
and  grew.  Although,  in  similar  circumstances,  it  is 
not  doubtful  that  the  Americans  would  have  acted 
in  precisely  similar  a  manner,  and  availed  themselves 
of  the  advantages  offered  them;  although  they  had 
practically  done  this  in  the  case  of  the  Berlin  de 
crees ;  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  have 
resented  the  attitude  of  a  large  part  of  the  British 
people,  openly  in  sympathy  with  the  South. 

But  these  feelings  have  been  softened  by  Time,  the 
great  healer;  and  men,  no  longer  carried  away  by 
the  angry  passions  of  the  days  of  war,  have  learned 
to  take  a  calmer  view  of  events  which  aroused  such 
tremendous  animosity.  The  Spanish  war  aided  in 
this ;  for,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  inner  story 
of  the  diplomatic  side  of  that  contest,  it  is  felt  in 
the  United  States  that  it  was  the  attitude  of  Great 
Britain,  standing  as  the  firm  friend  of  the  United 
States,  which  prevented  complications  that  might 
have  led  to  unforeseen  conflicts  with  other  powers. 
Manila  Bay  was  not  only  a  victory  for  Admiral 
Dewey  and  his  fleet;  it  was  also  a  victory  for  those, 
on  both  sides,  who  earnestly  desired  that  the  two 
greatest  nations  on  earth  should  henceforth  work  to 
gether  in  concord.  More  and  more  has  the  entente 
between  the  United  States  and  England  become  a 
guaranty  of  the  world's  peace,  and  the  great  change 
in  the  policy  of  the  Republic  toward  the  other  na 
tions  of  the  world  has  done  much  to  cement  inter 
national  friendship  and  to  remove  possible  causes  of 
friction. 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Another,  and  important  cause  of  the  anti-British 
spirit,  and  one  that  is  yet  unhappily  far  from  being 
removed,  or  even  markedly  diminished,  is  the  deter 
mined  hostility  of  the  Irish  element.  That  element 
is  numerous,  noisy,  poorly  disciplined,  credulous, 
fanatical,  and  chauvinistic.  It  is  handled  skil 
fully  by  those  who  see  in  it  possibilities  of  advance 
ment  and  profit  for  themselves;  it  is  directed  and 
controlled  by  men,  many  of  whom  are  patriots  in 
name  only,  and  self-seekers  in  reality.  But  the  Irish 
man,  with  his  fine  traits,  his  quick  temper,  his  pas 
sionate  devotion  to  tradition,  his  lively  imagination, 
his  intense  susceptibility,  his  moodiness  and  way 
wardness,  his  ready  yielding  to  inflammatory  ora 
tory,  is  not  always  able  to  discern  in  his  leaders  the 
true  from  the  false,  and  shouts  as  bidden,  pays  as 
ordered,  and  clamors  as  he  is  told  for  separation 
from  the  Empire.  A  cardinal  principle  of  the  direc 
tion  of  the  Irish  element  in  the  United  States  is  the 
cultivation  of  an  intemperate  hatred  of  Great 
Britain  and  all  her  people;  a  determination -ever  and 
on  all  occasions  to  misrepresent  her  and  to  traduce 
her;  to  ascribe  to  her  the  foulest  of  motives;  to 
charge  her  with  the  worst  of  crimes.  For  a  long 
time  this  system  worked  admirably,  and  the  bulk  of 
the  American  nation,  already  inflamed  against  Eng 
land,  willingly  lent  ear  to  the  declamations  of  Irish 
demagogues  and  the  denunciations  of  the  abettors  of 
murders  and  outrages. 

And  here  again  it  must  be  admitted  that,  no 
matter  what  opinion  may  be  entertained  of  the  ca 
pacity  of  the  Irish  to  conduct  a  government  in  a 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

decent  and  wholesome  manner — and,  in  view  of  the 
administration  of  municipal  government  in  New 
York,  Boston,  and  other  Irish  cities,  that  opinion  is 
likely  to  be  unfavorable — in  spite  of  this,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  Irish  grievances  were  numerous  and 
serious  and  weighty ;  that  the  Irish  had  good  rea 
son  to  protest  against  the  way  they  have  been  gov 
erned;  against  the  view  taken  of  them  by  the  major 
ity  in  England.  These  grievances  have  largely  been 
removed  by  the  action  of  successive  parliaments, 
and  there  is  a  fair  prospect  that  ere  long  the  Irish 
will  be  suffering  from  the  worst  trouble  of  all:  that 
of  having  no  grievance  left.  But  the  memory  of  for 
mer  maladministration  is  potent  still,  and  it  is  more 
potent  in  the  Irish  circles  in  the  United  States  than 
anywhere  else.  Many  there  be  who  have  never  set 
foot  in  Ireland ;  many  others  who  would  not,  if  they 
could,  return  there  to  live,  even  with  the  exhilarating 
prospect  of  fighting  the  Government;  but  none  the 
less  these  patriots  from  afar  are  among  the  most 
rabid  of  the  opponents  of  Britain,  and  it  is  they 
who  claim  to  dictate  to  the  Federal  Government 
what  line  of  conduct  it  shall  or  shall  not  pursue; 
who,  when  Mr.  Birrcll's  bill  failed,  announced  that 
they  would  make  Mr.  Bryce's  path  a  way  of  sor 
rows  ;  who  have  warned  the  United  States  Govern 
ment  that  they  will  not  tolerate  any  truckling  to  or 
dealings  with  the  oppressor;  who  gave  freely  of 
their  funds  to  aid  the  Boers,  not  because  the  Boers 
were  ever  friendly  to  the  Irish,  for  they  were  not — 
but  because  the  men  of  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange 
Free  State  were  fighting  England. 

293 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

It  is  this  element  which  seeks  to  perpetuate  ill 
feeling  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  ; 
for  the  element,  or  its  leaders,  as  a  body,  is  con 
vinced  that  it  holds  the  balance  of  power  in  America, 
and  that  the  Irish  vote  can  compel  the  Cabinet  at 
Washington  to  do  precisely  as  it  is  told  to  do.  It 
has  had  great  influence  in  the  past:  it  still  has  in 
fluence,  but  not  by  any  means  approaching  what  it 
fondly  believes.  Americans  have  become  tired,  of  late 
years,  of  being  dictated  to  by  a  party  which  is 
only  partially  American,  for  the  Irish  are  always 
very  careful  to  call  themselves  not  Americans,  but 
Irish- Americans,  thus  emphasizing  the  fact  that  they 
come  first  and  the  country  second.  And  it  is  recog 
nized  that  if  one  race  of  immigrants  is  to  be  con 
ceded  the  privilege  of  ordering  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  nation,  other  races,  becoming  rapidly  very  nu 
merous,  and  bringing  with  them  causes  of  hatred 
against  their  original  governments,  may  in  their  turn 
insist,  through  the  medium  of  their  votes  and  their 
persistent  clamor,  on  moulding  the  relations  of  the 
country  with  other  lands. 

Finally,  another  cause  was  at  work,  one  that  has 
ceased  to  have  any  power:  jealousy  of  the  greatness 
of  the  British  Empire.  Probably  this  statement  will 
evoke  the  liveliest  protests  and  the  most  spirited  con 
tradictions,  yet  it  is  a  statement  of  fact  and  not  of 
imagination.  Emulation  there  now  is,  but  this  emu 
lation  has  replaced  the  former  jealousy,  or  envy, 
if  that  word  be  preferred.  It  is  not  possible  for  a 
country  to  attain  the  height  of  prosperity  and  power 
to  which  the  British  Empire  has  attained  during 

294 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

the  nineteenth  century  without  stirring  up  envy  and 
emulation.  Very  early  the  Americans  laid  stress 
upon  the  extent  and  magnitude  of  the  British  pos 
sessions,  and  while  they  felt  that  their  own  country 
was  called  to  as  splendid  a  destiny,  while  they  be 
held  its  marvelous  development  and  its  phenomenal 
growth,  they  could  not,  being  human,  but  feel  some 
jealousy  of  that  power  which,  far  from  having  been 
crippled  by  the  loss  of  its  fairest  colonies,  was  turn 
ing  its  errors  to  account,  mending  its  ways  and  dis 
playing  to  an  amazed  world  a  capacity  for  adminis 
tration  of  alien  races  such  as  had  never  been 
witnessed  in  the  history  of  humanity.  The  Pax 
Britannica,  the  Might  of  Britain,  ruler  of  the  seas, 
compelled  emulation,  and  caused  envy.  But  so  soon 
as  the  greatness  of  the  United  States  became  indis 
putable,  so  soon  as  all  European  nations  began  to 
vie  one  with  another  in  courting  the  friendship  and 
support  of  the  Great  Republic,  the  feeling  of  envy 
was  replaced  by  one  of  satisfaction:  the  end  was 
achieved:  if  Britain  was  great,  if  the  Old  Country 
was  powerful,  so  was  the  young  nation  that  now 
stretched  from  one  ocean  to  the  other,  that  had 
fought  a  war  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  that 
had  in  the  meantime  developed  resources  so  vast,  so 
illimitable  that  all  was  open  to  it  in  the  realm  of 
commerce,  industry  and  finance.  Under  those  con 
ditions,  envy  was  out  of  place,  jealousy  absurd,  and 
emulation  alone,  the  emulation  of  an  equal,  suited 
to  the  dignity  of  the  land.  And  that  conclusion 
was  sound. 

There  is  one  point  in  which  Americans  and  Britons 
295 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

are  alike,  in  the  matter  of  foreign  relations:  a  not 
always  veiled  contempt  for  races  of  color.  This  is 
aside  from  the  antipathy  felt  toward  the  negro  by 
a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United 
States.  The  negro  stands  on  a  footing  of  prac 
tical  inferiority,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  con 
trary  by  ardent  advocates  of  perfect  equality.  But 
the  reference  here  is  to  the  races  of  Central  and 
South  America  and  of  the  East.  Just  as  the 
Briton,  while  sacrificing  himself  to  the  welfare  and 
uplifting  of  the  races  of  India,  nevertheless  looks 
down  upon  them,  just  as  the  same  Briton,  laboring 
indefatigably  for  the  raising  of  the  Egyptian  fellah, 
considers  him  an  inferior  being,  so  does  the  Ameri 
can  view  the  Mexican,  the  Latin-Americans,  the 
Chinese  and  the  Japanese.  The  latter,  it  is  true, 
have  greatly  disturbed  the  conception  of  natural  in 
feriority,  and  their  attitude  toward  Western  na 
tions  has  compelled  these  to  revise  their  former  ideas 
of  the  lower  condition  of  the  Orientals,  but  it  is 
still  true  that  the  American  is  apt  to  class  all  for 
eigners,  of  races  different  from  his  own,  as  "dagoes." 
This  expression  comes  so  readily  to  his  lips  that 
it  is  plain  it  renders  his  feeling  exactly.  The  Span 
iard  and  the  Italian  who  enter  the  country  and  settle 
in  it,  the  Greek  and  Armenian,  the  Slav  and  the 
Syrian  all  alike  come  under  that  broad  designation. 
It  is  not  intended  to  be  deliberately  insulting:  usu 
ally  there  is  no  thought  of  that  in  the  mind  of  the 
man  who  uses  it;  it  is  simply  a  mode  of  expressing 
that  conviction  of  racial  superiority  which  is  allied, 
in  the  American  mind,  to  the  conviction  of  national 

296 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

supremacy.  The  ancient  Greek  looked  upon  all  for 
eigners  as  barbarians,  the  Hebrew  stigmatized  out 
siders  as  gentiles — and  does  so  still;  the  Roman  felt 
and  manifested  the  heartiest  contempt  for  those 
who  enjoyed  not  the  high  distinction  of  Roman  citi 
zenship,  and  the  Briton  of  to-day  and  his  kin,  the 
American,  do  in  this  respect,  and  with  regard  to  all 
races  not  of  their  own  blood,  precisely  what  Greek 
and  Hebrew  and  Roman  did  of  yore. 

In  consequence  of  this  rooted  feeling  the  treat 
ment  of  foreign  races,  of  foreign  nations,  exhibits 
frequently  a  tendency  to  haughtiness  verging  on  in 
solence.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  nations 
should  expect  and  obtain  just  the  same  sort  of  treat 
ment  which  is  accorded  to  Britain,  France,  Germany 
or  Russia.  They  are  not  in  the  same  class ;  they 
cannot  claim  the  same  privileges ;  they  have  not  the 
same  rights.  That  is  the  unspoken,  unexpressed 
feeling  of  the  masses ;  the  statesmen  are  hard  put  to 
it  at  times  to  conciliate  this  disposition  with  the  ne*- 
cessity  they  clearly  perceive  of  treating  foreign 
governments  with  courtesy  and  fairness.  The  visit 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the  South  Americans 
was  the  more  impressive  and  the  more  effective 
on  this  account.  It  assumed  the  character  of  an 
educational  trip  for  the  Americans,  and  of  a  recog 
nition,  on  the  part  of  the  mighty  republic,  for  the 
countries  and  people  so  visited.  But  there  were 
many  in  the  United  States  who  could  not  understand 
what  need  there  was  for  such  honor  being  paid  to 
mushroom  republics  and  acknowledged  tyrannies. 

The  Philippines  present  an  interesting  aspect  of 
297 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

this  curious  contradiction  in  principle  and  practice. 
The  theory  sedulously  maintained  is  that  the  Philip 
pines  are  free,  that  they  are  the  equals  of  the 
Americans,  that  they  are  being  trained  to  self-gov 
ernment.  The  fact  is  that  the  Philippines  are  not  in 
the  least  free  and  independent,  that  they  are  in  no 
wise  recognized  as  the  equals  of  the  conquering  race, 
and  that  there  is  really  no  practical  brotherhood 
between  them  and  the  Americans  who  lord  it  over 
their  isles.  And  in  a  similar  way  the  Cubans  and  the 
Porto  Ricans,  while  unquestionably  helped  and  edu 
cated  by  the  Americans,  are  very  far  indeed  from 
being  looked  upon  as  are,  for  instance,  the  Germans 
who  immigrate  in  such  numbers  into  the  United 
States  or  the  Scandinavians  who  form  so  large  a  pro 
portion  of  the  population  in  certain  states. 

This  is  quite  natural,  and  simply  proves  that 
theories  do  not  invariably  fit  in  with  hard  facts. 
The  civilization  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  United 
States  is  far  in  advance  of  that  of  most  other  lands. 
The  people  of  these  countries  are  firm  believers  in 
freedom  and  justice;  their  ideals  are  practically  the 
same ;  their  methods  of  work  are  analogous,  but  all 
nations  have  not  yet  learned  to  believe  in  that  su 
periority.  The  Hindoos  take  from  the  British  all 
the  advantages  with  which  the  latter  are  ready  and 
eager  to  furnish  them,  and  then  turn  these  to  use 
against  the  ruling  race.  More  and  more  will  the 
unrest  in  India  grow  as  the  education  given  spreads 
more  and  more  and  excites  ambitions  and  aspira 
tions  that  must  necessarily  be  antagonistic  to  the 
British  Raj.  So  in  the  colonial  possessions  of  the 

298 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

United  States  it  will  prove  impossible  to  win  the 
natives  to  a  hearty  sympathy  with  American  meth 
ods,  which  are  essentially  foreign  to  them,  which 
they  do  not  understand,  and  which  they  cannot 
understand.  It  is  not  enough  to  proclaim  self-gov 
ernment:  it  is  first  necessary  to  educate  the  people 
up  to  it,  and  such  education  must  perforce  be,  in 
cases  such  as  India  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Philip 
pines  on  the  other,  a  matter  of  generations.  Races 
which  have  never  troubled  about  or  been  troubled 
by  notions  of  equality  and  liberty,  cannot  assimi 
late  them  by  decree.  The  British  method  in  India 
is  better  than  the  American  method  in  the  Philip 
pines,  for  it  is  based  upon  the  recognition  of  that 
fact.  However  there  is  no  government  in  the  United 
States  that  would  dare  to  proceed  on  sensible  lines 
in  this  respect,  that  would  have  the  moral  courage 
to  proclaim  the  truth  that  races  are  not  to  be  en 
franchised  in  a  day  or  by  a  mere  dictum,  as  were  the 
negro  slaves  by  President  Lincoln,  but  that  it  takes 
years  and  years  to  teach  even  a  highly  developed 
race  what  true  liberty  is  and  how  it  should  be  util 
ized.  It  was  not  in  one  generation  that  the  English 
learned  to  vindicate  their  personal  and  national 
rights,  that  the  French  grasped  the  lesson  of  prog 
ress,  and  to  expect  tribes  of  savages  to  become  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye  capable  of  self-government 
is  the  very  height  of  political  folly.  But  that  folly 
is  imposed  upon  the  United  States  Government  by 
the  rooted  conviction  of  the  citizens  that  everyone 
who  comes  into  contact  with  American  institutions, 
that  passes  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  becomes 

299 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

thereby  miraculously  and  suddenly  endowed  with 
qualities  and  powers  of  which  there  may  have  been 
no  trace  whatever  beforehand. 

In  its  relations  with  European  powers  and  with 
countries  which,  like  Japan,  have  risen  to  the  fore 
most  rank  and  require  to  be  considered,  there  are 
difficulties  of  a  different  nature.  The  day  is  past 
when  bluster  and  threatening,  when  imperiousness 
and  aggressiveness  marked  the  relations  between  the 
Republic  and  its  neighbors  across  the  sea.  The  tone 
and  manner  of  American  diplomacy  have  changed  in 
finitely  for  the  better,  and  this  not  only  without  loss 
to  the  dignity  and  influence  of  the  country,  but  with 
great  increase  thereof.  The  manners  which  are  so 
plentifully  lacking  in  the  intercourse  of  Americans 
at  home  are  to  be  found  in  their  full  beauty  in 
the  relations  with  foreign  lands.  Firmness,  it  has 
been  found,  can  be  allied  with  tact;  resolution  with 
courtesy,  and  the  position  of  the  country  has  gained 
enormously  of  late  years  in  consequence.  But  there 
remains  a  difficulty  which  complicates  the  pacific  and 
just  settlement  of  disputes  between  the  United  States 
on  the  one  hand  and  foreign  countries  on  the  other. 
That  difficulty  is  the  inability  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  to  protect  the  subjects  of  friendly  foreign 
powers  within  its  borders. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  one  of  the  most  power 
ful  governments  in  the  world  is  absolutely  prevented 
from  carrying  out  obligations  solemnly  entered 
upon,  and  finds  itself  repeatedly  in  the  humiliating 
position  of  being  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  fact. 
With  the  intense  susceptibility  of  the  American  to 

300 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

criticism  of  any  sort,  it  is  almost  marvelous  that 
the  country  has  gone  on  so  long  laying  itself  open 
to  just  strictures  on  this  point.  A  treaty  between 
the  United  States  on  the  one  hand  and  a  foreign 
government  on  the  other  does  not,  though  it  pro 
fess  to  do  so,  guarantee  liberty  and  safety  to  the 
nationals  of  that  government  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  United  States.  It  is,  in  this  respect,  a  one 
sided  affair,  of  which  the  advantage  lies  with  the 
American  and  the  disadvantages  with  the  foreigner. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  a  party,  or  of  antipathy,  or 
anything  of  that  sort:  it  is  merely  the  result  of 
the  conflict  between  Federal  and  State  authority. 
"State  Rights"  constitute  the  insuperable  obstacle. 
No  State  in  the  Union  has  the  power  to  make  a 
treaty  with  a  foreign  nation;  but  every  State  in 
the  Union  has  the  means  of  nullifying  the  provisions 
in  such  a  treaty  which  look  to  the  protection  of  for 
eigners.  Italians  are  murdered  and  Italy  demands 
indemnity  and  apology:  the  Federal  Government 
replies  that  it  is  unable  to  act,  because  it  has  no 
jurisdiction  over  the  State  in  which  the  crime  has 
been  committed;  Japanese  are  attacked,  and  the 
Mikado  claims  that  the  treaty  shall  be  carried  out 
in  letter  and  spirit,  but  the  Federal  Government 
finds  itself  confronted  by  the  opposition  of  the  State 
in  which  the  regrettable  affair  has  occurred.  It  is 
helpless ;  a  pitiable  condition  for  the  Government  to 
be  in.  The  country  is  well  aware  of  this  peculiar 
condition  of  affairs,  but  the  moment  it  is  recom 
mended  that  some  modification  shall  be  introduced 
by  which  the  engagements  solemnly  entered  into  on 

301 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

behalf  of  the  nation  shall  be  carried  out  in  their 
integrity  and  without  interference  on  the  part  of 
individual  States,  protests  are  heard  and  the  very 
political  existence  of  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  is 
threatened.  Yet  a  nation,  a  great  nation,  cannot 
shirk  its  duties  and  responsibilities  ;  not,  indeed,  until 
it  discharges  these  in  full  can  it  truly  claim  to  be 
called  great. 

This  is  felt  by  very  many  in  the  United  States ;  a 
change  is  earnestly  desired;  the  possibility  of  the 
national  honor  being  jeopardized  by  local  action  is 
not  contemplated  with  equanimity,  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  ere  long  the  Federal  Government 
will  be  fully  empowered  to  carry  out  the  provisions 
of  international  treaties  regardless  of  the  obstacles 
which  at  present  exist. 


XVII 
ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

When  a  distinguished  prelate  of  the  American 
Protestant  Church  returned  from  England,  not  long 
ago,  he  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  met  on  the  land 
ing  stage  by  the  usual  band  of  reporters  primed 
with  questions,  armed  with  pencils  and  notebooks, 
and  prepared  to  dress  up  the  statements  the  bishop 
might  be  induced  to  make,  so  that  the  "scare  heads" 
should  appeal  forcibly  to  the  curiosity  of  the  public. 
That  prelate  had  been  most  hospitably  entertained 
in  Britain  and  wherever,  in  the  course  of  his  jour 
ney  ings,  he  had  come  under  the  British  flag.  He 
had  heard  his  country  extolled,  and  the  cordial  rela 
tions  existing  between  their  respective  governments 
dwelt  upon  with  great  satisfaction.  He  had  listened 
to  speeches  of  welcome  and  had  replied  to  them; 
sentiment  had  been  poured  out  freely  on  both  sides, 
and  the  joy  of  union  and  harmony  had  been  cele 
brated  and  toasted.  Probably  he  had  permitted 
himself  to  quote  the  not  unknown  psalm:  "Behold, 
how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to 
dwell  together  in  unity!"  Yet,  he  astounded  the 
readers  of  the  interview  by  saying:  "You  can  de 
pend  upon  it  there  is  no  love  lost  between  the  two 

303 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

countries.  There  is,  I  fear,  a  good  deal  of  gush 
about  it." 

There  exist  in  the  United  States  many  British 
societies,  mostly  of  a  charitable  or  beneficiary  char 
acter,  with  one,  the  Victorian  Club,  of  Boston,  whose 
purpose  was  for  some  years,  to  cultivate  better 
knowledge  of  Britain  among  the  Americans.  There 
are  American  societies,  such  as  the  Transatlantic 
Union  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  Pilgrim's  Club  of 
New  York,  which  also  seek  the  same  end.  At  all 
meetings  of  British  societies  the  speakers,  whether 
British  or  American,  lay  stress  upon  the  kinship 
of  the  two  nations,  upon  their  community  of  lan 
guage,  of  literature,  of  historical  tradition,  of  ideals 
in  politics,  justice,  freedom.  They  emphasize  the 
importance  of  the  bonds  which  unite  the  two  lands, 
and  they  rejoice  at  the  thought  that  the  days  of 
mistrust  and  suspicion  are  over  and  done  with,  that 
the  times  of  enmity  are  past,  and  that  the  lion  and 
the  eagle  are  now  firm  friends,  and  earnest  allies, 
in  fact,  in  promoting  concord  and  peace  throughout 
the  world. 

Which  is  the  true  view  of  the  relations  between 
the  two  countries?  That  of  the  prelate  who  sees 
in  the  manifestations  of  good-will  mainly  "gush,"  or 
that  of  the  British  and  Americans  who  see  in  them  a 
proof  of  a  better  understanding  and  a  gage  of  closer 
and  sincere  union?  Are  the  efforts  of  the  latter, 
however  well  meant,  mistaken  and  foredoomed  to 
f ruitlessness  ?  Is  the  bishop  unwittingly  a  prophet 
and  does  he  foretell  further  strife  and  dissension? 
Are  the  hopes  of  those  Britons  who,  while  passion- 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

ately  attached  to  their  own  country,  love  and 
admire  and  respect  the  United  States  and  its  peo 
ple,  futile  and  vain?  Are  the  beliefs  of  the  Ameri 
cans  who  cherish  sincere  regard  for  Great  Britain, 
who  recognize  the  immense  amount  of  good  wrought 
by  her  sons  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  who  are  not 
blinded  by  fanatical  hatred  of  monarchy,  are  these 
beliefs  naught  but  error?  It  would  be  painful  to  be 
compelled  to  accept  this  view  of  the  matter.  And 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  do  so.  The  prelate  is  partly 
right,  but  wide  of  the  mark  in  other  respects.  The 
promoters  of  genuine  friendship  between  the  two 
nations  are  perchance  too  optimistic,  but  at  least 
their  object  is  a  praiseworthy  one,  and  their  en 
deavors  will  not  all  end  in  disappointment.  The 
point  to  strive  for  is  a  clear  perception  of  the  real 
value  and  of  the  real  meaning  of  this  Anglo-American 
friendship,  of  the  real  nature  of  the  relations  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

There  are  very  many,  in  America,  at  the  present 
moment,  who  entertain  a  deep-rooted  hatred  of  Eng 
land;  that  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  blinked.  The 
bulk  of  the  younger  generation,  trained  in  the  pub 
lic  schools,  is  taught  to  dislike  and  detest  every 
thing  British,  to  cast  contumely  upon  the  people,  to 
abhor  the  monarchial  system,  to  consider  the  Meteor 
Flag  the  embodiment  of  cruelty  and  tyranny,  the 
incarnation  of  all  that  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
freedom,  whether  personal  or  national.  It  is  not 
safe,  not  entirely  safe,  at  the  present  time,  for  a 
British  subject  to  display  the  colors  of  his  country 
in  the  United  States.  He  must  be  prepared  to  see 

305 


AMERICANS   AND    THE    BRITONS 

them  assailed  and  hauled  down,  and  it  is  at  last 
doubtful  whether  he  would  obtain  even  a  modicum 
of  protection  from  municipal  authorities  in  such 
an  event.  That  in  British  possessions  the  American 
flag  flies  unmolested  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  or  on 
any  other  day  in  the  year,  is  not  considered  by  the 
patriotic  American  a  reason  why  similar  courtesy 
should  be  extended  to  Britons  in  his  own  land.  There 
no  flag  may  float  in  assured  security  save  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  and,  in  most  cities,  the  green  ensign  of 
Erin.  The  Union  Jack  has  been  borne  through  the 
streets  of  American  cities  and  has  been  applauded, 
that  is  true;  even,  mirabile  dictu,  it  has  been  seen 
flying  side  by  side  with  Old  Glory  from  the  top  of 
the  Bunker  Hill  monument  in  Boston,  but  these  ex 
ceptional  marvels  are  not  to  be  taken  as  a  demon 
stration  of  regard,  still  less  of  affection,  for  the 
symbol  of  England's  might.  They  are  seed  scat 
tered  in  ground  that  may  just  as  well  prove  rocky 
and  unpropitious  as  favorable.  It  is  possible  that 
in  the  years  to  come  the  feverish  susceptibility  of 
the  American  may  not  only  tolerate  but  welcome  the 
sight  of  the  Union  Jack  as  freely  as  that  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  is  welcomed  in  England,  but  it  is 
only  a  possibility — and  a  remote  one.  The  American 
is  essentially  of  exclusive  tendencies.  The  earth  is 
his,  and  the  fulness  thereof,  and  the  Briton  who 
has  long  believed  himself  the  Elect  must  learn  that 
he  has  a  formidable  and  determined  rival  for  world 
supremacy.  The  American  Eagle  sweeps  over  the 
universe,  and  whenever  the  American  sees  anything 
which  can  be  construed  into  the  badge  of  his  national 

306 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

superiority,  he  never  fails  so  to  construe  it.  In  a 
little  Presbyterian  church  in  Saint  Andrews,  in  the 
province  of  New  Brunswick,  the  visitor's  attention 
is  called  to  a  handsome  pulpit  surmounted  by  the 
symbolical  representation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the 
form  of  a  dove.  An  American  tourist  immediately 
exclaimed :  "Why !  there  is  the  American  eagle !" 
And  it  was  somewhat  difficult  to  undeceive  that  pa 
triotic  person. 

The  school  training  is  perhaps  next  to  Irish  en 
mity  the  most  effective  influence  in  perpetuating  hos 
tility  to  Great  Britain.  The  character  of  the  school 
histories  has  already  been  referred  to.  So  long  as 
that  form  of  teaching  is  maintained,  so  long  will 
perverted  ideas  on  the  subject  of  England  and  her 
policy  be  instiled  in  the  minds  of  the  young,  and 
everyone  who  has  had  experience  in  this  direction 
is  aware  that  these  early  impressions  are  the  most 
difficult  to  alter  or  eradicate.  To  most  of  the  school 
children — and  this  is  by  no  means  an  exaggeration 
— the  British  flag  is  the  symbol  of  tyranny,  cruelty 
and  misgovernment.  It  represents  the  country 
which  they  are  taught  to  consider  the  hereditary 
and  bitter  and  treacherous  foe  of  their  native  land. 
No  matter  what  they  may  learn  later,  what  they 
may  observe  for  themselves  in  after  life,  the  first 
impression  remains  and  colors  their  feelings  toward 
Great  Britain.  It  is  not  to  be  completely  effaced: 
it  may  be  diminished,  but  the  seed  of  dislike  and  en 
mity  remains.  Ignorance,  whether  arising  from  lack 
of  opportunities  of  instruction  or  from  rooted 
prejudice,  is  one  of  the  most  fertile  breeders  of 

307 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

mistakes  and  conflicts.  Neither  the  average  Ameri 
can  has  any  clear  and  true  notion  of  the  England  of 
to-day,  nor  the  average  Briton  a  sound  apprehen 
sion  of  the  real  greatness  and  power  of  the  United 
States.  On  both  sides  there  are  wrong  ideas ;  on 
both  a  vast  amount  of  appalling  error  to  be  cleared 
away.  The  two  nations  can  gain  only  by  becoming 
more  closely  acquainted,  provided  that  acquaint 
ance  is  based  upon  the  recognition  of  certain  facts 
which  it  is  absurd  to  blink  at  or  attempt  to  over 
throw. 

The  Briton  must  learn  that  the  American  nation 
counts  for  as  much  in  the  world  as  does  his  own, 
and  which  is  going  to  count  more  and  more  every 
day;  a  nation  which  exists  perfectly  well  without 
much,  in  the  social  constitution,  which  he  is  apt  to 
consider  indispensable  to  the  due  development  and 
progress  of  a  people;  a  nation  which  has  a  spirit 
of  its  own,  a  genius  of  its  own,  a  way  of  its  own 
of  solving  problems,  a  conviction  that  it  is  capable 
of  handling  difficulties  for  itself  and  in  a  way 
which  is  peculiar  to  itself;  a  nation  which  is  very 
proud  of  its  history,  commercial,  political,  military, 
naval,  and  which  does  not  for  a  moment  believe  that 
it  has  anything  to  envy  in  these  respects  in  the 
nations  of  Europe. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  would  greatly  conduce  to 
the  peace  of  nations  and  the  progress  of  truth 
were  the  American  to  get  into  his  head  that  words 
do  not  invariably  and  everlastingly  represent  un 
changing  facts:  that  because  one  country  has  a 
monarchial  form  of  government,  it  is  thereby  ren- 

308 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

dered  inferior  to  one  that  has  set  up  the  republican 
form  under  peculiarly  favorable  circumstances ;  that 
monarchy  has  not  always  been  an  unmixed  evil,  and 
is  not  so  now,  but  very  often  a  great  political  bless 
ing;  that  the  ideas  of  one  generation  are  not  neces 
sarily  the  ideas  of  the  generations  that  come  after, 
a  point  fully  exemplified  by  the  change  in  the  United 
States  themselves ;  finally,  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  does 
not  bear  a  grudge,  or  at  all  events,  does  not  bear 
it  long;  consequently  that  the  British,,  when  they 
speak  of  affection  for  the  Americans,  express  a  sim 
ple  truth,  for  they  feel  both  admiration  and  respect 
for  the  country  and  its  people. 

And  both  might  well  bear  in  mind  that  the  pecul 
iarities  of  Americans  on  the  one  side  and  of  Britons 
on  the  other  are  precisely  the  things  that  make  them 
known  as  Britons  or  Americans,  and  that  it  is  folly 
to  expect  either  of  them  to  abandon  their  national 
traits.  The  Englishman  is  entitled  to  speak  his 
language  after  his  manner,  and  the  American  has  no 
less  a. right  to  modify  the  parent  tongue  to  suit  his 
needs  and  his  preferences. 

The  United  States  present  the  interesting  spec 
tacle  of  a  race  which  still  calls  itself  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  yet  which  is  every  day  becoming  less  and  less 
purely  so.  The  enormous,  and  ever-increasing  immi 
gration,  which  brings  hundreds  of  thousands  of  for 
eigners  from  every  clime  and  of  every  stock  into 
the  countryv  and  does  this  week  by  week,  month  by 
month,  and  year  by  year — that  immigration  is  caus 
ing  a  profound  change  in  the  constituent  elements 
of  the  race.  The  fundamental  element  is  yet,  no 

309 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

doubt,  Anglo-Saxon,  but  the  mingling  of  bloods,  and 
consequently  of  ideas  and  habits,  is  fast  changing 
the  general  character  of  the  race.  There  is  a  remark 
able  power  of  assimilation,  which  is  incessantly  at 
work.  The  children  of  the  Slav,  of  the  Scandina 
vian,  of  the  Latin,  of  the  Oriental,  become  intense 
Americans,  imbued  with  the  sense  of  the  power  and 
greatness  of  the  nation  of  which  they  are  young 
citizens ;  they  acquire  the  American,  not  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  habit  of  mind;  they  have  nothing  in  common 
with  the  British;  they  have  neither  sympathy  nor 
natural  admiration  for  the  country  from  which  the 
United  States  has  sprung ;  their  language  is  not  the 
English  of  England,  but  the  English  of  America ; 
their  traditions  are  foreign  to  British  traditions,  and 
therefore  to  suppose  that  they  are  inclined  to  love 
England  and  the  English,  to  gaze  with  gratification, 
mingled  with  awe  upon  the  vast  empire  on  which 
the  sun  never  sets,  is  to  make  a  mistake  fraught 
with  painful  consequences  to  the  optimist,  who  would 
base  upon  the  supposed  complete  kinship  of  the  two 
races  a  belief  in  perpetual  amity  between  them,  or 
even  hopes  of  abnegation  in  the  matter  of  diplomatic 
negotiations. 

It  is  easy  to  mistake  the  strength  of  feeling  for 
England  and  things  English.  It  is  quite  true  that 
there  are  many  families  which  take  a  pride  in  being 
descended  from  well-known  families  in  the  old  coun 
try  ;  that  the  love  of  English  coat-armor  is  strongly 
developed  among  many  individuals  who  can  trace 
some  sort  of  ascendancy  in  the  land  whence  came 
the  Washingtons  and  others ;  that  many  an  Ameri- 

310 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

can  will  at  once  say  that  were  he  not  American  he 
would  prefer  to  be  English,  and  this  may  be  accepted 
without  hesitation  as  a  true  expression  of  feeling. 
But  he  is  an  American,  and  an  American  he  re 
mains  even  if  he  take  up  his  abode  across  the 
Atlantic.  Few  Americans  abandon  their  allegiance 
to  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  this  is  an  honorable 
trait  in  them.  On  the  other  hand  very  many  Britons 
renounce  allegiance  to  their  sovereign,  some  be 
cause  they  may  not  enter  certain  professions  in  the 
United  States  unless  they  have  become  citizens; 
some  because  they  believe  that  their  chances  of  suc 
cess  are  greatly  increased  by  the  change  in  their 
nationality;  some  from  frank  preference  for  the 
country  of  their  adoption;  many  because  they  have 
married  American  wives,  and  the  American  wife  is, 
as  a  rule,  intractable  on  the  question  of  allegiance 
to  the  land  she  has  been  born  in  and  to  which  she 
is  devoted.  It  may  be  taken  as  nearly  certain  that 
the  Briton  who  has  espoused  an  American  and  who 
makes  his  home  in  the  States  is  at  heart  an  American 
himself,  no  matter  how  exuberant  his  outward  devo 
tion  to  his  former  or  present  sovereign  may  be.  The 
whole  atmosphere  round  him  is  American;  he  im 
bibes  it  continually;  his  children  are  brought  up  in 
it;  their  schooling  is  American,  and  their  affections 
are  very  naturally  and  very  properly  bestowed  upon 
the  land  they  have  been  educated  in.  When  it  comes 
to  a  question  of  choosing  between  the  two,  the  nat 
uralized  American  has  no  alternative;  he  must  go 
and  he  does  go  with  his  new  country;  the  non-nat 
uralized  Briton,  the  dweller  in  the  land,  will  find  him- 

311 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

self,  if  married  to  a  native,  in  a  position  of  exceed 
ing  difficulty. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  naturalized  Britons,  and 
those  who  have  married  Americans,  enjoy  opportu 
nities  of  influence  which,  to  their  credit  be  it  said, 
they  avail  themselves  of  to  promote  cordial  rela 
tions  between  the  two  great  nations.  Their  affection 
for  the  one  does  not  suffer  by  their  love  for  the 
other;  their  interests  as  well  as  their  sympathies 
lead  them  to  desire  that  concord  and  harmony  shall 
reign,  and  that  better  knowledge  shall  be  more  widely 
spread.  But  neither  they  nor  the  unchanging 
Briton,  true  to  his  allegiance  "in  spite  of  all  tempta 
tions,"  can  affect  the  cardinal  fact  that  Americans 
are  not  at  heart  English,  any  more  than  the  Eng 
lish  are  Yankees  or  anything  else.  They  may  do 
their  utmost  to  maintain  kindly  feelings;  they  may 
speak  eloquently  on  the  ties  which  bind  the  two  na 
tions,  but  they  cannot  change  the  reality,  which  is 
that  year  by  year  the  American  nation  is  becoming 
less  and  less  Anglo-Saxon  and  more  and  more  purely 
American. 

But  the  optimists  may  consider  that  the  ten 
dency,  so  strongly  and  so  frequently  exhibited,  to 
seek  connection,  family  connection,  with  Britain,  is 
a  sign  rather  of  closer  kinship.  It  is  nothing  of  the 
sort,  any  more  than  the  fact,  frequent  in  England, 
that  a  family  claims  with  right  to  "have  come  over 
with  the  Conqueror,"  makes  the  members  of  that 
family  desire  to  be  Normans  and  French  citizens. 
The  pride  of  ancestry  is  unquestionably  great,  and 
the  number  of  French  names  in  the  peerage  is  sig- 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

nificant  enough,  but  not  one  of  the  thousands  of 
Englishmen  whose  ancestors  were  originally  French 
would  consent  to  part  with  his  English  nationality 
now.  They  are  English  to  the  core.  In  exactly  the 
same  way  are  Americans,  though  descended  from 
some  of  the  oldest  and  most  Saxon  of  houses,  Ameri 
can  to  the  marrow.  They  are  proud  of  their  de 
scent,  they  refer  with  satisfaction  to  the  fact,  but 
that  does  not  make  them  English,  and  in  the  unhappy 
event  of  a  quarrel  between  the  two  countries,  their 
English  descent  would  not  make  them  flinch  one 
second  from  fulfilling  their  duties  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States. 

Nor  should  too  much  reliance  be  placed  on  the 
community  of  language  and  literature.  Neither 
language  nor  literature,  though  undoubtedly  strong 
bonds,  have  ever  availed  to  keep  together  in  amity 
races  sprung  from  exactly  the  same  stock  or  those 
having  formed  part  of  the  same  empire.  The  fact 
that  two  men,  coming  from  opposite  ends  of  the 
earth,  speak  the  same  language,  is  not  a  guaranty 
of  permanent  good-will  between  them.  Nor  is  it  a 
pledge  that  the  language  will  remain  the  same  and 
that  its  influence  will  persist.  There  was  a  period 
during  which  the  inhabitants  of  Italy,  Gaul  and 
Spain  spoke  the  same  speech  and  had  the  same  civi 
lization.  That  language  was  the  tongue  of  an  emi 
nently  imperial  and  masterful  race;  the  civilization 
was  the  highest  the  world  then  knew;  the  laws  were 
practically  the  same ;  the  political  principles  and  the 
constitution  of  society  were  similar.  Yet  the  lan 
guage  changed,  and  at  the  present  day  a  French- 

313 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

man,  an  Italian  or  a  Spaniard  does  not,  simply  as 
such,  understand  the  speech  of  the  other  national 
ities,  although  philologists  insist  that  the  three 
tongues  are  in  principle  alike.  Philologically  they 
are;  practically  they  are  not,  and  the  fact  that 
they  are  all  three  Romance  tongues  never  prevented 
and  never  will  prevent  the  nations  that  speak  them 
from  pursuing  their  own  policy,  from  quarreling 
with  their  neighbors,  and  from  fighting  them  even, 
if  need  arise.  Italian  was  in  high  favor  at  the 
French  court  when  Francis  I  asserted  his  claim  to 
superiority  over  Charles  V  and  lost  the  battle  of 
Pavia,  and  Spanish  was  currently  spoken  when 
Henry  IV  had  to  oust  the  Spanish  garrisons  from 
his  towns  and  cities. 

That  Americans  should  modify  the  English 
spoken  in  England,  that  they  should  change  the 
meaning  of  some  words,  alter  numbers  of  phrases, 
is  not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at.  English  is  a 
living,  not  a  dead,  language,  and  the  mark  of  a 
living  language  is  continual  change  and  development. 
Language  adapts  itself  to  the  needs  of  the  nation 
which  uses  it;  it  alters  without  ceasing  both  in  the 
land  of  its  origin  and  in  the  lands  to  which  it  is 
transplanted.  It  is  bound  to  be  modified,  and  all 
protests  against  this  fact  are  as  vain  as  those 
uttered  against  the  weather,  which  man  has  never 
yet  been  able  to  affect. 

The  English  of  England  must  perforce  turn  into 
American  in  the  United  States;  instead  of  the  dif 
ferences  between  the  two  forms  of  speech  diminish 
ing  and  disappearing,  as  some  would  desire,  they 

314 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

are  certain  to  increase  and  multiply,  and  the  day 
will  come  when  an  American  tongue  will  have  been 
evolved  from  the  parent  stock.  The  American  re 
sembles  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  many  ways ;  in  many 
others  he  is  quite  unlike  him,  as  seen  in  Britain; 
so  with  the  language:  at  present  it  is  still  English, 
with  some  modifications  and  additions,  but  day  by 
day  it  tends  to  become  a  separate  idiom,  one  which 
will  be  formed  out  of  the  needs  of  the  nation  that 
uses  it,  a  nation  now  no  longer  purely  Anglo-Saxon, 
but  a  mingling  of  many  races  and  many  nationalities, 
each  of  which  is  contributing  its  share  to  the  com 
mon  speech. 

The  Americans  are  not,  then,  disfiguring  the 
English  language;  they  are  adapting  it,  which  is  a 
very  different  thing.  They  are  doing  exactly  what 
the  English  themselves  are  doing  and  have  done 
for  centuries,  for  the  language  of  to-day  has  lost 
many  terms  formerly  familiar,  and  has  acquired 
many  unsuspected  of  the  writers  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries.  New  words  are  coined, 
new  terms  produced,  new  meanings  attached  to  ex 
pressions  of  long  standing ;  orthography  is  changed, 
pronunciation  is  altered.  The  same  processes  are 
going  on  in  the  United  States,  and  with  absolute 
reason.  To  endeavor  to  stem  the  current  would  be 
idle.  The  change  has  come  and  will  persist.  One 
may  feel  sentimental  regret  at  this ;  one  may  oppose 
vehemently  the  alterations,  but  King  Canute  could 
as  easily  have  triumphed  over  the  advancing  tide  as 
the  conservative  purist  can  hope  to  succeed  in 
maintaining  forms  that  have  been  abandoned  or  ex- 

315 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

pressions  that  have  come  into  use  for  the  very  reason 
that  they  express  what  the  speaker  desires  to  say. 

There  is  an  enormous  amount  of  bad  writing  and 
worse  speaking  in  the  United  States;  that  may  be 
granted  without  difficulty,  for  it  is  patent  to  every 
educated  man  or  woman.  The  specialists  take  the 
most  terrible  liberties  even  with  the  American  EngA 
lish  they  have  learned  at  school  and  in  college ;  they 
have  no  respect  for  grammar ;  often  none  for  sense ; 
but  this  is  not  an  American  peculiarity;  it  is  to 
be  met  with  in  every  land,  where  there  are  always 
writers  for  the  press — they  are  the  worst  offenders — 
who  believe  that  the  more  extraordinary  perversions 
are  the  more  original  and  the  more  striking  is  the 
consequent  style.  The  true  test  of  the  use  of  English 
in  the  United  States  is  to  examine  the  work  of  the 
leading  writers  and  the  leading  speakers.  It  will 
be  found  that  they  do  not  differ  much  from  their 
compeers  on  the  other  side.  In  the  everyday  tongue, 
more  liberties  are  taken — assuming  that  they  are  lib 
erties  and  not  justifiable  changes  and  adaptations — 
but,  when  looked  at  impartially,  it  is  generally  seen 
that  these  are  in  the  direction  of  terseness  and  vigor 
of  expression.  Concentration,  the  use  of  ellipsis,  a 
frequent  subtleness  of  humor,  of  the  best  and  the 
raciest — these  are  the  traits  most  visible.  The  quick 
ness  and  restlessness  of  the  American  manifest  them 
selves  in  his  familiar  speech  as  in  his  familiar  actions. 
Accustomed  to  act  swiftly,  impulsively,  yet  with  a 
solid  basis  of  common  sense  and  prudence,  the 
American  reproduces  these  qualities  in  the  terms  he 
invents  and  the  phrases  he  constructs.  He  has  the 

316 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

art,  in  a  high  degree,  of  endowing  a  well-known 
word  with  an  altogether  new  meaning,  and  the  mo 
ment  it  is  heard  in  that  sense  the  appropriateness 
of  the  expression  strikes  the  mind  joyfully. 

It  is  the  American  tongue,  arising  and  growing. 
And  in  the  course  of  time  it  will  be,  although  of  the 
same  origin  as  English,  as  little  of  a  real  bond  be 
tween  the  two  races  as  French  and  Italian  or  French 
and  Spanish  form  a  bond  between  the  nations  which 
speak  these  languages. 

The  literature  follows  the  language,  just  as  the 
Constitution  does  not  follow  the  flag.  At  present 
there  is  not  a  great  body  of  American  literature 
such  as  constitutes  a  real  national  possession,  but 
it  is  coming.  Americans  will  no  more  be  content 
to  depend  on  Great  Britain  for  their  intellectual 
treasures  in  every  branch  of  knowledge  and  imagi 
nation  than  were  the  Germans  satisfied  to  rest  con 
tent  with  translations  and  adaptations  from  the 
French  once  the  national  spirit  began  to  manifest 
itself  among  them.  Germany  had  been  in  a  worse 
condition  than  even  is  the  United  States  at  the 
present  time  with  regard  to  a  purely  national  litera 
ture,  yet  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  a  splendid 
production  took  place  and  a  blossoming  of  genius 
occurred.  Tnere  is  ample  material  for  a  great  and 
varied  national  literature  in  America  and  there  are 
intellects  enough  to  supply  writers  of  mark.  Al 
ready  many  admirable  works  have  seen  the  light: 
great  historians  and  notable  philosophers  have 
arisen;  novelists  of  striking  merit,  capable  of  evolv 
ing  new  forms  and  of  exploring  new  fields  have 

317 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

made  their  appearance.  Poetry  still  lacks  its  mighty 
singer,  and  it  may  be  that  he  will  never  come,  and 
that  the  United  States  will  never  rival  Europe  in 
the  domain  of  that  form  of  literature,  but  even 
should  this  prove  to  be  the  case,  a  national  literature 
will  exist. 

The  books  which  most  please  the  American  reader, 
especially  in  the  range  of  fiction,  are  not  invariably 
those  that  win  approval  in  the  old  country.  The 
American  drama  is  not  in  favor  in  England,  where 
it  is  imperfectly  understood,  while  English  plays 
have  to  be  dressed  up  for  American  consumption. 
This  is  simply  stating  the  difference  between  the 
two  countries,  and  indicating  the  line  of  divergence 
in  matters  literary  which  will  run  farther  and  farther 
apart  as  generation  succeeds  generation. 

Frenchmen  do  not  grow  particularly  enthusiastic 
over  Spanish  literature,  even  of  that  period  when 
the  tongue  of  Iberia  and  that  of  Gaul  were  so  nearly 
akin  as  to  be  understood  in  the  one  and  the  other 
land.  Had  not  Corneille  transformed  the  work  of 
Guillem  de  Castro  into  a  French  masterpiece,  the 
blood  of  no  Frenchman  would  run  faster  on  hearing 
the  "Mocedades  del  Cid"  translated  for  him  into 
his  everyday  speech.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the 
"^Eneid"  would  not  prove  equal  to  the  "Marseil 
laise"  in  rousing  the  warlike  passions  of  the  masses, 
yet  the  "JEneid"  is  written  in  the  tongue  from  which 
modern  French  is  derived.  So  with  the  lapse  of 
years  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Americans,  who 
will  have  obtained  for  themselves  masterpieces  of 
their  own,  will  become  enthusiastic  over  British 

318 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

friendship  and  British  alliances  simply  because  Mil 
ton  wrote  "Paradise  Lost"  and  Shakespeare  his  im 
mortal  dramas.  Even  now,  the  plays  of  the  great 
bard  which  thrill  Americans  are  not  so  much  the 
historical  dramas,  in  which  the  Englishman  learns 
the  story  of  his  country's  greatness,  as  those  com 
positions  which  may  be  said  to  belong  to  every  age 
and  to  every  clime. 

The  form  of  literature  which  most  binds  peoples 
is  the  popular.  The  songs  of  England,  of  Scotland, 
of  Ireland  are  heard  the  world  over  among  Britons, 
but  they  are  scarcely  ever  heard  in  America.  That 
is,  the  American  is  not  a  singer  in  the  way  the 
Briton  or.  the  Frenchman  or  the  German  is.  He 
does  not  express  his  feelings  in  song,  whether  joy 
ous  or  plaintive.  He  has  produced  no  "Annie 
Laurie,"  no  "Lass  of  Richmond  Hill,"  no  "Wearin' 
o'  the  Green ;"  his  very  national  anthem,  "America," 
is  but  the  national  anthem  of  Britain,  with  words 
adapted  to  it ;  the  greatest  university  in  the  country, 
although  endowed  with  a  Department  of  Music,  has 
borrowed  an  English  air  for  its  solemn  functions, 
and  has  turned  the  pathos  and  charm  of  the  original 
into  something  doleful  rather  than  uplifting  and 
stirring.  This  important  link  is  wanting,  and  the 
music,  the  popular  music,  of  the  United  States  is 
that  of  a  foreign  and  inferior  race :  the  despised 
negro.  There  are,  it  is  true,  some  beautiful  airs  of 
American  origin,  but  there  is  not  that  mass  of  song 
which  in  older  European  countries  expresses  the 
sentiments  of  the  people.  Not  the  English  or  the 
Scotch  songs  and  ballads  are  heard  in  common,  but 

319 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  productions  of  the  comic  opera  and  the  vaude 
ville  show. 

In  manners  and  customs,  in  those  habits  which 
are  most  familiar,  there  is  not  the  perfect  resem 
blance  and  harmony  which  would  guarantee  close 
ties.  The  American  does  not  do  things  as  the  Briton 
does  them:  his  home  is  a  different  thing  from  the 
traditional  home  of  England;  the  house  he  dwells 
in  is  designed  and  planned  in  a  fashion  wholly 
unlike  the  ordinary  English  house.  The  American 
who  goes  to  England  complains  that  he  cannot  see 
over  the  wall  or  hedge  which  borders  the  road  or  the 
street;  that  his  natural  desire  to  view  the  residence 
and  its  surroundings  is  balked ;  that  the  churlish 
owner  conceals  himself  and  his  belongings,  violating 
thus  one  of  the  cardinal  principles  of  democracy 
as  practised  in  the  United  States:  that  no  man 
has  any  right  to  privacy.  The  interior  of  the 
American  house  is  open,  as  is  the  exterior;  just  as 
lawn  merges  into  lawn,  and  garden  into  garden, 
without  any  visible  line  of  demarcation,  so  does  the 
planning  of  the  interior  provide  for  the  throwing  of 
hall  and  reception  rooms  into  one  large  space. 

The  American  hotel  is  a  public  resort :  Tom,  Dick 
and  Harry,  without  a  sou  to  their  names,  march 
into  the  halls  and  reception  rooms  there  and  avail 
themselves  of  the  commodities  they  find  at  hand; 
they  cannot  do  this  in  the  ordinary  British  hotel,  for 
the  public  rooms  do  not  exist,  at  all  events  not  in 
such  numbers  or  on  such  a  scale  as  in  the  United 
States.  The  Englishman  is  careful  to  observe  and 
respect  the  rights  of  private  property;  he  will  not 

320 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

trespass  upon  the  grounds  of  his  neighbor;  he  will 
not  cut  across  spaces  simply  because  the  short  cut  is 
tempting.  He  will  proceed  round,  and  show  that 
while  he  avoids  trespass  himself,  he  relies  on  its  being 
avoided  in  the  case  of  his  property.  But  the  Ameri 
can  is  impatient  of  any  restraint  or  restriction  of 
this  sort.  For  him  there  exists  no  right  that  is 
superior  to  his  own,  and  all  the  notices  against  tres 
pass,  all  the  boards  bearing  inscriptions  of  a  pro 
hibitive  character,  are  merely  so  many  inducements 
to  him  to  do  the  very  thing  he  is  told  he  must  not 
do.  There  is  a  famous — and  fine — monument  at 
Concord,  in  Massachusetts,  representing  a  Minute 
Man  of  1776  on  the  watch  for  the  British  foe.  It 
is  worth  seeing  for  itself,  and  it  is  most  interesting 
in  connection  with  the  historical  events  it  commem 
orates.  The  situation  is  picturesque ;  the  surround 
ings  lovely,  and  the  combination  of  all  these  attrac 
tions  draws  many  visitors  to  the  place,  which  is 
reached  by  a  wooden  bridge  spanning  a  stream.  A 
notice  has  been  put  up  requesting  motorcars  not  to 
cross  the  bridge.  They  all  cross  it,  after  the  chauf 
feur  and  the  passengers  have  read  the  prohibition. 
These  things  show  a  deeper  difference  in  the  spirit 
and  character  and  habits  of  the  two  nationalities 
than  is  generally  supposed  to  exist.  In  England  a 
right  of  way  is  sedulously  maintained  against  pos 
sible  closing  by  the  owner  of  the  land,  but  it  is  not 
sought  to  force  an  owner  to  let  people  traverse  his 
property  if  their  sweet  will  incline  them  to  do  so. 
In  the  United  States  the  man  whose  pride  in  his 
lawn  is  justified  by  its  approach  to  velvetiness,  sees 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  casual  passer-by  cross  it  leisurely,  and  go  on 
his  way  without  the  smallest  feeling  that  he  has  in 
any  way  exceeded  the  bounds  of  propriety. 

In  England  the  invited  guest  at  a  function  is 
content  to  be  welcomed  and  hospitably  entreated, 
and  to  carry  away  memories  only.  But  the 
American  guest  or  casual  visitor,  a  certain  type  at 
least,  must  have  a  solid  token  of  his  entertainment, 
and  portable  objects  are  apt  to  pass  from  the 
ownership  of  the  host  to  the  pocket  of  the  guest. 
This  is  not  called  stealing;  it  is  not  even  dignified 
with  the  appellation  of  kleptomania ;  it  is  "carrying 
away  souvenirs."  The  bronze  bassi-relievi  on  the 
gates  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington  are  witnesses  to 
this  habit  of  the  American  on  a  visit.  The  guides 
who  show  the  tourist  through  the  place  will  tell  him 
that  the  moment  Congress  has  adjourned  it  is  neces 
sary  to  remove  curtains  and  carpets,  else  they  disap 
pear  under  the  hands  of  the  constituents  who  come 
to  see  the  place  where  their  representative  is  elo 
quent.  When  the  Duke  of  Abruzzi  came  with  his 
squadron  and  entertained  a  company  of  visitors  on 
board  his  flagship,  he  discovered,  to  his  amazement 
and  indignation,  that  as  brilliant  a  razzia  as  ever 
was  conceived  and  carried  out  by  Raisuli  had  swept 
through  his  vessel.  Even  his  own  personal  belong 
ings  had  vanished.  And  the  wrath  which  led  him 
to  express  his  views  on  the  subject  called  forth  the 
following  statement  from  the  American  admiral: 

"The  American  souvenir  hunters  will  steal  any 
thing  except  a  cellar  full  of  water.  At  Boston,  on 
one  occasion,  I  was  in  command  of  the  Indiana,  when 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

a  reception  was  given  on  board  ship.  It  was  the 
first  time  a  first-class  man-of-war  had  visited  Boston 
harbor.  When  the  reception  was  over,  and  we  went 
to  turn  on  the  searchlight,  we  found  that  even  the 
carbons  had  been  taken.  The  screws  on  the  search 
light  had  been  taken  out,  and  the  big  lamp  was  unfit 
for  use.  An  examination  of  the  two  dozen  or  more 
guns  showed  that  all  the  gunsights  had  been  car 
ried  away,  while  the  officers'  quarters  had  been  robbed 
of  everything  that  could  be  taken." 

Commenting  upon  this,  a  Boston  paper  remarks : 
"Nothing  but  profound  mortification  for  Americans 
follows  reading  authentic  reports  of  the  pilfering  of 
the  Duke  of  Abruzzi's  property  and  that  of  other 
members  of  his  party  while  they  were  visiting  the 
Jamestown  exposition.  Admiral  Evans  does  not  ex 
aggerate  at  all  when  he  describes  his  own  experience 
here  in  Boston  harbor  with  visitors  to  our  own 
ships ;  and  the  testimony  of  hotel-keepers,  managers 
of  restaurants  and  guardians  of  public  property 
generally  is  uniform,  namely,  that  we  have  come  to 
be  a  people  with  a  very  shady  reputation  for  pilfer 
ing.  People  who  would  be  insulted  if  called  thieves, 
and  whose  word  is  inviolable  in  business  or  in  ordi 
nary  intercourse,  and  who  could  be  left  for  an  in 
definite  time  in  the  presence  of  coin  of  the  realm,  do 
not  hesitate  to  take  'souvenirs,'  as  they  call  them. 
It  is  a  habit  that  points  toward  other  and  worse 
deeds.  It  shows  a  breaking-down  of  moral  fiber 
under  way  (sic)  that  will  imperil  good  name  and  pos 
sibly  liberty  itself  later  if  temptation  sufficiently 
strong  comes  along." 

323 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

La  propriete  c'est  le  vol  seems  to  be  the  uncon 
scious  attitude  of  very  many  in  the  United  States ; 
it  does  not  matter  what  form  property  takes, 
whether  the  private  grounds  of  a  residence,  the 
flowers  and  shrubs  upon  it,  or  the  articles  within 
the  residence.  There  appears  to  be  an  irresistible 
tendency  to  do  just  what  should  not  be  done,  per 
haps  by  way  of  affirming  the  ever-proclaimed  liberty 
of  the  American  citizen.  It  is  difficult  to  explain 
this  radical  opposition  in  habits  between  the  Briton 
and  the  American  save  on  that  ground.  It  surely  is 
not  a  liking  for  pilfering,  for  that  does  not  apply 
in  the  least  to  the  ineradicable  custom  of  marching 
precisely  where  you  are  asked  not  to  step ;  it  is  no 
more,  certainly,  the  wish  to  possess  something  in 
trinsically  valuable,  for  anything  that  turns  up  an 
swers  the  purpose  of  a  souvenir.  It  may  be  rudi 
mentary  socialism  of  the  collectivist  stripe,  which 
leads  its  unwitting  disciples  to  manifest  in  this  way 
their  belief  that  all  property  is  in  common,  but  what 
ever  the  patent  or  secret  motive  of  such  conduct — 
condemned,  as  has  just  been  seen,  by  the  sound 
sense  of  the  press  and  people — it  is  evident  that  here 
is  an  essential  difference  between  the  Briton  and  the 
American,  the  former  having  great  respect  for  prop 
erty  and  its  rights,  the  latter  very  little. 

Of  the  ties  which  have  been  discussed  the  real 
force  is  sentiment,  and  to  sentiment  the  American 
is  exceedingly  responsive,  the  large  element  of  the 
emotional  in  his  make-up  accounting  for  this.  And 
sentiment  being  an  excellent  thing  in  itself,  in  proper 
doses,  it  can  be  relied  upon  to  further  greatly  the 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

cordial  relations  between  the  two  countries.  It  will 
be  long  ere  the  changes  in  language  and  literature 
attain  the  proportions  which  will  make  it  difficult 
for  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  countries  to  hold  the 
freest  intercourse  together ;  till  then,  and  after  that, 
sentiment  will  play  its  part.  It  is  sentiment  that 
dictated  the  supremely  chivalrous  thought  of  flying 
the  Union  Jack  side  by  side  with  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  on  that  October  day  when  the  Honorable 
Artillery  of  London  was  visiting  Boston;  it  is  sen 
timent  that  inspires  the  orators  who  dwell  on  the 
friendship  between  the  two  races  ;  it  is  sentiment  that 
sends  so  many  Americans  to  England  to  see  with 
their  own  eyes  the  bust  of  Longfellow  in  Westmin 
ster  Abbey,  the  memorial  window  to  Lowell,  the 
Harvard  Chapel  in  Southwark  Cathedral,  and  then 
to  visit  Cambridge  where  John  Harvard  was  edu 
cated,  Sorvoby,  Austerfield  and  other  places.  It  is 
sentiment,  allied  to  the  conviction  that  it  is  best 
for  the  progress  of  humanity  that  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  should  forever  be  at  peace, 
that  keeps  alive  the  belief  in  the  close  kinship  of  the 
nations,  and  that  fosters  the  efforts  of  societies 
which  strive  to  disseminate  true  knowledge  of  the 
one  and  the  other  land.  Herein  is  the  large  hope  that 
ancient  hatreds  and  past  enmity  will  die  out  com 
pletely,  but  it  is  not  the  only  basis  for  that  hope, 
and  language  and  literature,  and  a  common  origin, 
and  a  common  tradition  are  supported  by  a  yet  more 
powerful  influence:  the  community  of  ideals. 

The  United  States  is  a  democracy,  with  imperfec 
tions  and  with  disadvantages  coexisting  side  by  side 

325 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

with  wonderful  benefits.  The  American  in  principle 
abhors  and  detests  class  distinctions  and  honorary 
titles.  The  Briton  is  a  member  of  a  monarchy:  he 
believes  in  that  form  of  government  which  he  has 
slowly  evolved  and  patiently  perfected  till  it  has 
provided  him  with  what  is,  probably,  the  most  per 
fect  of  democratic  governments;  for  the  mere  pres 
ence  of  an  hereditary  ruler  and  the  existence  of  a 
peerage  do  not  infirm  the  democratic  principle  of 
British  self-government.  Both  nations  are  ardently 
devoted  to  that  principle;  both  have  made  notable 
sacrifices  for  it;  both  treasure  it  and  are  resolute 
not  to  abandon  it.  This  is  a  strong  tie  between 
them,  for  it  is  one  that  cannot  be  loosened.  And 
both  nations  apply  the  principle  in  the  fullest  meas 
ure:  justice  is  even,  spite  of  the  present  fact  that 
in  the  United  States  money  too  often  causes  it  to 
waver — a  temporary,  passing  phenomenon  which  ere 
long  will  be  relegated  to  the  past.  Both  believe  in 
education  for  all,  although  in  America  greater  prog 
ress  has  been  made  in  this  direction  than  in  the  old 
land;  in  the  latter  the  progress  will  be  more  rapid 
in  the  future.  Both  believe  in  political  equality,  and 
guarantee  it  successfully;  both  seek  to  preserve  the 
rights  of  the  minority;  both  aim  to  develop  all  that 
is  best  in  national  character;  both  strive  for  peace 
with  honor.  These  indeed  are  the  ties  on  which  the 
lovers  of  both  lands  may  count  to  hold  together  the 
greatest  of  republics  and  the  mightiest  of  empires. 
As  the  years  go  on,  as  intercourse,  already  great, 
becomes  greater  and  closer,  as  knowledge  spreads 
and  prejudice  dies  out,  the  two  lands  will  more  and 

326 


ANGLO-AMERICAN    RELATIONS 

more  draw  nearer  and  more  and  more  work  for  the 
good  of  humanity.  In  their  hands  lie,  to  a  large 
extent,  the  securing  of  the  progress  of  civilization, 
of  concord,  of  peace.  Both  are  awaking  to  a  reali 
zation  of  the  fact,  of  the  responsibilities  it  entails, 
and  are  abandoning  old  and  wrong  notions  for  a 
truer  perception  of  their  common  task. 


XVIII 
THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

Destined  to  be  a  blessing  to  the  nations  suffi 
ciently  advanced  to  understand  and  apply  it,  the 
principle  of  democracy  bears  within  itself  a  danger 
to  the  communities  founded  upon  it,  a  peril  ever 
present,  and  ever  ready  to  destroy  the  true  life  of 
the  nation.  That  peril  is  tyranny  by  the  masses  and 
tyranny  by  the  individual.  The  land  where  liberty 
reigns  in  virtue  of  equality  of  opportunities,  where 
all  men  may  rise  to  any  position,  where  individual 
talent  may  confer  any  distinction,  where  there  is  no 
check  of  class  distinction,  no  repression  by  tradition ; 
that  land,  if  wisely  governed  by  her  sons,  will  re 
main  the  home  of  real  liberty  and  of  genuine  prog 
ress  ;  will  be  as  a  light  to  guide  the  nations,  and  a 
hope  of  those  that  are  yet  enslaved.  But  if  that 
liberty  turn  in  the  direction  of  lawlessness,  it  will 
speedily  turn  to  anarchy,  and  for  the  glory  of  the 
past  will  be  substituted  the  oppression  of  the  fu 
ture.  No  human  institution  has  ever  proved  per 
fect  ;  no  form  of  government  yet  devised  by  men  has, 
so  far,  shown  itself  capable  of  avoiding  all  dangers 
to  the  public  weal,  and  democracy  obeys  the  same 
law  and  is  exposed  to  the  same  danger. 

328 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

Blindness  and  overconfidence  on  the  part  of  the 
citizens  of  a  state  have  ere  now  wrecked  the  most 
stable,  apparently,  of  governments:  blind  trust  in 
words  and  formulas ;  overconfidence  in  the  ability 
of  the  inhabitants  to  meet  and  overcome  all  diffi 
culties,  in  the  name  of  themselves.  There  is  vast  en 
lightenment  among  the  men  of  the  United  States ; 
there  is  not  yet  perfection  of  knowledge:  there  is 
wide  political  experience;  there  is  not  yet  certainty 
of  fullest  political  science :  there  is  varied  skill  in  the 
handling  of  difficult  questions ;  there  is  not  yet  ab 
solute  reliability  in  the  solutions.  Americans,  this 
may  freely  and  gladly  be  granted,  have  already  ex 
hibited  surprising  power  and  talent  in  settling  prob 
lems  both  new  and  great ;  they  do  not  possess,  albeit 
they  may  indulge  to  fond  belief,  the  key  to  all  the 
riddles  of  government.  Republics,  because  demo 
cratic  in  principle,  are  doubtless  bound  to  replace 
little  by  little  the  imperial  and  monarchial  and 
princely  forms  of  government,  but  none  yet,  not  even 
happy  Switzerland,  not  even  mighty  America,  is  the 
ideal  Republic.  Often,  too  often,  republic  is  but 
the  veil  of  tyranny  and  harsh  dictatorship.  Not  in 
the  United  States,  doubtless,  but  in  many  another 
land,  and  this  fact,  which  ought  to  be  constantly 
present  to  the  minds  of  the  Americans,  is  too  fre 
quently  lost  sight  of. 

True,  it  is  improbable  that  the  fate  which  over 
took  the  Roman  republic  of  old  is  in  store  for  the 
Union  of  to-day,  yet  is  it  equally  true  that  in  the 
palmy  days  of  Republican  Rome  few  or  none  sup 
posed  that  such  a  calamity  was  ever  to  befall  the 

329 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

City  of  the  Seven  Hills.  The  fate  of  nations  is  not 
wholly  on  the  knees  of  the  gods;  nations,  like  indi 
viduals,  largely  fashion  their  doom  for  themselves. 
As  they  work,  as  they  plan,  as  they  act,  so  befalls 
their  end.  To  the  individual  is  given  a  trust;  his 
life,  and  its  effect  on  himself  and  those  around  him: 
to  nations  likewise  a  trust ;  their  power  and  their 
influence  for  the  advancement  of  humanity;  and  as 
they  discharge  that  trust,  so  do  they  become  great 
and  free  in  the  eyes  of  men,  or  small  and  enslaved 
to  their  own  shortcomings  and  their  own  faults. 

Democracies  are  peculiarly  subject  to  the  danger 
of  tyranny,  and  the  stronger  they  grow,  the  larger 
they  become,  the  greater  grows  the  peril.  With  the 
accumulation  of  wealth,  with  the  development  of  in 
dustries,  with  the  extension  of  commerce,  with  all 
that  goes  to  make  up  worldly  success,  the  danger  to 
real  liberty  increases  in  a  ratio  that  astounds  those 
who  afterward  behold  the  effects  of  the  ills  that 
have  sprung  from  what  were  blessings. 

Men  remain  men  throughout  the  ages;  their 
growth  in  self-mastery  is  painfully  slow;  their  ac 
quisition  of  virtue,  as  individuals  or  as  societies, 
lamentably  lingering.  The  American  of  this  twen 
tieth  century,  heir  to  so  many  civilizations,  possessor 
of  so  many  advantages  denied  to  the  innumerable 
generations  which  have  preceded  him  on  earth,  is 
apt  to  be  carried  away  by  a  feeling  of  overweening 
pride  in  the  achievements  of  his  race,  and  to  deceive 
himself  into  the  belief  that  never  has  there  been  and 
never  will  there  be  any  nation  like  unto  his  own,  so 
richly  endowed  mentally  and  intellectually,  so  ener- 

330 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

getic,  so  far-sighted,  so  quick  of  apprehension,  so 
ready  to  seize  opportunities,  so  steadfast  in  the  de 
fense  of  its  natural  rights,  so  keen  to  protect  its 
conquests  in  all  realms,  so  able,  so  resolute  to  hold 
fast  to  that  liberty  which  untold  millions  have  sighed 
for  and  never  beheld  save  with  the  eyes  of  hope,  which 
millions  on  millions  long  for  now  and  see  unattain 
able.  In  the  splendid  onward  rush  of  success  which 
attends  him,  in  the  intoxicating  sense  of  triumph 
which  continually  mounts  to  his  brain,  he  is  apt  to 
forget;  and  as  he  forgets,  some  parcel,  some  small 
portion  of  that  highly-prized  and  much-vaunted  lib 
erty  escapes  him,  not  again  to  be  regained  save  at 
the  cost  of  efforts  most  dire  and  most  trying. 

The  American  stands  to-day,  more  than  the  mem 
ber  of  any  other  race  upon  earth,  as  the  representa 
tive  of  advancement,  of  progress.  On  him  rests  a 
responsibility  so  great  that  it  might  well  make  the 
boldest  pause  ere  endeavoring  to  discharge  it  fitly. 
He  knows  not  fear;  he  is  full  of  confidence:  two 
excellent  helps  in  the  carrying-out  of  his  work.  But 
he  is  inclined,  too  much  inclined  to  trust  in  the 
magic  power  of  his  name,  of  his  form  of  government, 
as  the  men  of  old  trusted  in  their  bow  and  spear,  j 
And  as  he  founds  himself  on  this  magical  name,/ 
on  this  perfect  government,  lo!  it  brings  forth  tyr 
anny  and  slavery  and  wretchedness  and  woe  to  thou 
sands  in  his  land.  His  liberty  is  threatened  by  no 
external  foe,  but  by  the  more  insidious  and  dan 
gerous  secret  enemy  within,  sprung  from  democracy 
itself. 

Many  years  have  passed  since  Heine   said   that 
331 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

"democracy  brings  forth  two  kinds  of  men:  those 
who  establish  it  and  those  who  destroy  it — Washing 
ton  and  Bonaparte."  Many  years  have  passed,  yet 
the  saying  remains  true.  And  it  is  the  present  dan 
ger  of  the  United  States  that  it  is  bringing  forth 
men  whose  deeds  and  whose  policy  are  surely  de 
structive  of  the  true  liberty  for  which  the  Fathers 
fought.  Inordinate  pride,  unbounded  self-satisfac 
tion,  lust  for  power,  greed  for  money,  determination 
to  have  their  own  way  regardless  of  the  rights  of 
others,  these  are  the  characteristics  of  those  who  are 
sapping  the  very  foundations  of  the  stable  govern 
ment  of  the  land.  These  are  the  things  which,  un 
checked,  will  work  the  ruin  of  the  democracy  as 
surely  as  the  sun  rises  and  sets  in  the  heavens,  and 
were  it  not  that  many  minds  are  awake  to  the  peril, 
that  many  men  are  striving  against  it,  that  the 
sense  of  the  people  to  the  need  of  vigilance  and 
action  is  being  aroused,  an  evil  day  were  in  store  for 
the  great  country. 

Where  individualism  plays  so  large  a  part  in  the 
everyday  life  of  a  nation  as  it  does  in  the  United 
States,  where  opportunity  is  so  wide  and  so  free, 
where  man  may  dare  and  do,  as  he  may  in  that 
land,  the  desire  of  the  heart  is  apt  to  be  for  uncon 
trolled  power  and  absolute  might.  So  arise  those 
who  unconsciously  at  first,  open-eyed  afterwards, 
take  on  themselves  to  tyrannize  over  the  public. 
With  the  growth  of  the  sense  of  power  comes  the 
almost  irresistible  wish  to  increase  that  power  to  the 
utmost.  Ruthless  and  unscrupulous,  the  successful 
man  degenerates  into  the  tyrant,  and  he  need  not  be 

332 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

a  political  despot:  the  field  for  autocracy  is  broad 
and  presents  many  chances  to  him.  He  may  rule 
alone  over  mines  and  their  millions  of  dependents ; 
he  may  bind  together  the  laborers  in  the  cities ;  he 
may  unite  in  his  grasp  the  lines  of  transportation ; 
he  may  subject  to  himself  the  wealth  of  financiers; 
he  may  hoard  the  food  of  the  people;  no  matter  in 
what  particular  fashion  he  sets  to  work  to  gratify 
his  instinct  for  absolutism,  he  attains  his  end  to  the 
detriment  not  alone  of  the  individuals  whom  he  causes 
to  suffer,  but  to  the  yet  greater  loss  of  the  liberty 
cf  the  State,  and  the  principles  of  justice  on  which 
it  is  based. 

When  he  associates  with  himself  others,  engaged 
in  some  similar  or  allied  business,  when  he  conceals 
himself  behind  the  soulless  corporation  or  trust, 
he  is  none  the  less  a  tyrant,  such  as  his  forefathers 
hated  and  fought.  He  calls  himself  by  the  name  of 
a  Trust  or  a  Union,  but  he  is  a  despot  using  his 
tremendous  power  not  for  the  advantage  of  the 
country  but  for  his  personal  profit.  He  bears  no 
golden  scepter  in  his  hand,  wears  no  jeweled  crown 
on  his  head ;  men  call  him  not  Majesty  as  they  cringe 
before  him,  but  they  cringe,  as  did  the  Egyptians 
before  the  Pharaohs,  as  did  the  French  before  Louis, 
fourteenth  of  the  name,  as  the  Russians  before  their 
Czar.  They  tremble  at  his  nod,  they  obey  his 
behests,  they  fulfill  his  commands,  for  he  has  the 
power  to  enforce  them,  and  that  power  he  uses  with 
out  clemency,  without  mercy,  without  fear.  For 
whom  has  he  to  dread?  Is  he  not  sovereign  of  the 
souls  and  bodies  of  men?  Does  he  not  buy  them 

333 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  use  them  as  it  pleases  him?  Who  is  there  to  say 
him  nay  in  his  progress  in  wealth  and  omnipotence? 
He  controls  the  press  that  is  venal ;  he  cares  not  for 
that  which  is  honest  and  incorruptible ;  he  holds  the 
treasure  of  the  land  in  his  grasp,  and  for  the  pos 
session  of  some  small  share  of  these  he  knows  that 
many  men  will  sell  themselves  and  all  they  ought  to 
honor.  He  cannot,  it  is  true,  buy  them  all;  but  he 
need  not  do  so ;  he  can  always  count  on  a  large 
following,  large  enough  for  his  purposes ;  he  can 
rely  on  finding  hired  defenders  who  will  swear  he  is 
the  most  beneficent  creature  and  the  most  pure- 
minded  the  sun  of  God  ever  shone  upon.  He  cares 
not  a  straw  for  the  high-minded;  not  a  stiver  for 
the  just;  he  despises  the  incorruptible;  he  con 
temns  the  upright  in  heart.  He  reigns  by  virtue  of 
his  wealth,  which  is  his  strength,  and  so  long  as  he 
is  rich  beyond  the  ability  of  men  to  understand,  so 
long  is  all  well  with  him;  so  long  will  he  have  his 
sycophants  and  his  flatterers,  and  so  long  will  he 
ride  rough-shod  over  the  laws  of  the  land. 

The  laws  of  the  land!  They  do  not  exist  for 
him ;  he  is  above  them ;  he  flouts  them,  and  only  when 
they,  administered  by  wise  and  impartial  and  coura 
geous  judges,  interfere  with  his  tyrannical  progress 
does  he  stay  for  one  moment  to  curse  them  and 
declare  they  ought  to  be  swept  from  the  path  of 
such  as  he. 

This  particular  type  sets  its  ambitions  on  doing 
certain  things  in  the  management  of  the  lines  of 
communication  and  transportation.  So  far,  the 
purpose  appears  innocent  enough;  but  in  the  execu- 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

tion  of  it,  the  master  mind  necessarily  has  to  take 
account  of  those  institutions  which  may  advantage 
him  or  the  reverse,  and  as  such  a  man  does  not  pro 
pose  that  institutions  shall  injuriously  affect  him,  he 
straightway  proceeds  so  to  manage  them  that  they 
shall  be  subservient  to  him.  Thus,  little  by  little, 
and  often  with  a  rapidity  unsuspected  by  the  vast 
multitude  of  citizens,  the  autocrat  carries  out  his 
scheme  and  attains  the  end  he  seeks. 

There  is  the  refuge  of  the  courts,  fortunately,  but 
even  the  courts  find  themselves  unable  to  control 
or  check,  in  every  case,  the  dangerous  progress  of 
the  giants  of  finance  and  speculation.  For  these 
men,  wise  as  serpents,  never  fail  to  have  at  their 
counsel  able  lawyers  in  whom  the  love  of  gain  over 
rides  the  sense  of  duty  to  the  public;  lawyers  who 
are  ready  to  place  their  skill  in  using  the  law  at 
the  service  of  the  law-breaker.  Let  another  extract 
from  a  public  print  emphasize  this  point ;  it  is  from 
a  first-class  newspaper  in  New  England,  and  treats 
the  question  raised  by  the  eloquent  Bourke  Cockran 
in  Congress : 

"In  his  recent  speech  in  the  House,  Bourke  Cock- 
ran  expressed  his  belief  that  'there  are  at  this  mo 
ment  no  resources  at  the  disposal  of  society  suf 
ficient  to  put  any  man  possessed  of  eight  or  ten 
million  dollars  in  jail.'  He  admitted  that  'it  is  a 
humiliating  confession,  but  it  may  as  well  be  made.' 
'We  all  deplore  it,'  he  declared,  'but  no  man  has  yet 
raised  his  hand  to  strike  when  the  perpetrators  of 
crime  command  millions.'  And  he  asked  his  col 
leagues  if  this  is  not  'the  most  sinister,  the  most 

335 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

ominous  spectacle  ever  presented  in  the  history  of 
this  country.'  This  is  scarcely  accurate  .  .  .  yet 
there  is  no  doubt  much  truth  in  Mr.  Cockran's 
claim.  There  are  very  eminent  men  of  millions  in 
New  York,  who  have,  it  is  alleged,  committed  per 
jury  in  addition  to  violating  the  criminal  code  as  it 
relates  to  the  officers  of  trust  companies  and  other 
financial  corporations.  Nobody  expects  that  they 
will  be  sent  to  jail — though  District- Attorney 
Jerome  or  the  State's  Attorney-General  may  yet  dis 
appoint  expectations  in  this  particular." 

And  the  paper,  having  thus  admitted  the  exist 
ence  of  the  evil,  seeks  to  ascertain  the  cause,  and  it 
finds  it  in  the  action  of  lawyers  who  "build  up  for 
tunes  by  telling  rich  clients  how  to  'beat  the  law,'  " 
and  in  "the  lawyer-made  laws,"  cunningly  devised 
for  the  protection  of  their  clients.  Between  excep 
tions,  stays,  appeals,  writs  of  various  sorts,  bail  and 
other  legal  obstacles  that  block  the  path  of  justice 
like  a  labyrinth  of  pitfalls  and  barbed-wire  fences, 
even  a  resolute  prosecuting  officer  like  Folk  or 
Jerome  finds  it  difficult  to  convict  a  rich  law-breaker 
and  actually  get  him  into  jail. 

In  olden  times  in  Europe  the  robber  baron  in  his 
eyrie  laughed  at  the  process  of  law  as  it  was  in  his 
time.  He  was  safe  in  his  stronghold  and  defied  any 
power  save  that  of  a  stronger  than  himself;  the 
feudal  lord  mocked  at  the  edicts  of  the  King  and 
yielded  to  them  only  when  his  fortresses  were  taken 
and  his  bands  of  retainers  destroyed.  The  modern 
law-breaker  relies  on  the  intricacies  of  the  law  it 
self,  to  which  he  turns  for  the  purpose  of  finding 

336 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

means  of  avoiding  the  law.  The  oppression  of  the 
people  by  the  feudal  lords  caused  the  peasant  insur 
rection;  the  oppression  of  the  masses  by  the  mighty 
rich  and  the  trusts  will  bring  about  an  insurrection, 
taking  another  form,  of  course,  but  more  danger 
ous  to  the  men  against  whom  it  will  be  directed. 

Already  it  has  taken  shape,  and  a  new  tyranny 
has  arisen  to  combat  the  other;  the  tyranny  of 
labor,  itself  most  grinding  while  most  effective. 

It  was  inevitable  that,  in  opposition  to  the  oppres 
sion  of  capital  there  should  be  formed  a  union  of 
the  workers.  Labor  has  its  rights,  although  these 
have  not  always  been  recognized,  and  once  the  la 
borers,  in  whatever  trade,  manufacture  or  industry, 
were  taught  to  perceive  this  fact,  it  became  compara 
tively  easy  to  draw  them  together  and  to  marshal 
them  as  an  imposing  force  destined  to  combat  the 
conditions  under  which  labor  struggled.  There  can 
be,  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  right  of  the  working- 
men  to  unite  in  this  fashion,  nor  can  there  be  any 
doubt  that  the  labor  unions  have  wrought  great  and 
lasting  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  em 
ployees.  In  so  far  as  they  confined  themselves  to  this 
task,  they  merited  nothing  but  the  heartiest  ap 
proval  of  the  lovers  of  liberty  and  democracy,  for 
liberty  is  not  consonant  with  oppression  in  any  form, 
and  that  man  is  not  free  who  has  to  submit  to  in 
justice. 

But,  unhappily,  the  labor  unions  speedily  went 
beyond  the  proper  sphere  of  action  in  which  they 
could  exercise  their  rights.  It  was  proper  and  just 
that  they  should  seek  to  improve  the  rate  of  wages, 

337 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

wherever  that  was  possible;  that  they  should  obtain 
fixed  and  suitable  length  of  hours  for  their  mem 
bers;  that  they  should  strive  to  put  an  end  to  child 
labor  and  to  the  employment  of  young  lads  and  of 
women  in  ways  hurtful  physically  and  morally  to 
them;  it  was  right  that  they  should  ask  their  mem 
bers  to  stand  together  and  to  make  sacrifices  at  need 
for  the  sake  of  the  principle  they  advocated.  So 
far  the  unions  remained  within  the  strict  limits  of 
liberty,  which  ought  to  be  common  to  all  men,  and 
they  rightly  and  properly  set  their  strength  against 
the  power  of  capital.  But  when  they  went  further 
and  took  to  forbidding  members  from  working  with 
men  not  in  the  unions,  when  they  endeavored  to  pre 
vent  those  who  were  willing,  although  they  them 
selves  were  not,  to  work  under  favorable  conditions, 
or  for  a  wage  less  than  the  unions  required,  they 
overstepped  the  bounds  of  right.  When  their  sym 
pathetic  strikes — a  tremendous  weapon,  used  re 
morselessly — reacted  not  only  upon  the  firms  or  cor 
porations  they  were  fighting,  but  also  upon  the 
utterly  innocent  public,  then  they  entered  upon  a 
course  fatal  to  the  principle  of  the  democratic  Re 
public  of  which  they  are  citizens  and  in  which  they 
enjoy  the  protection  of  the  laws  and  the  advantages 
of  stable  government.  It  is  not  intended  here  to 
enter  into  the  vexed  and  complicated  question  of  the 
relations  between  capital  and  labor;  it  is  sufficient, 
without  doing  so,  to  mark  the  fact  that  the  plan  pur 
sued  by  so  many  of  the  unions,  of  striving  to  pre 
vent  men  from  accepting  and  retaining  work  on 
any  terms  other  than  those  approved  by  the  officers, 

338 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

is  a  direct  attack  on  the  liberty  of  the  individual 
and  on  his  right  to  earn  his  livelihood  in  an  honest 
way. 

The  unions  do  not  seem  to  perceive  that  their  own 
actions  must  eventually  bring  about  a  demand  for 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws  which  guarantee  that 
liberty,  and  that  the  enforcement  will  in  its  turn 
create  the  possibilities  of  autocratic  government. 
The  more  the  law  is  broken  in  a  democracy,  the 
more  it  is  disregarded,  the  more  the  mass  of  the  peo 
ple  is  made  to  suffer  unjustly  through  the  strife 
of  capital  and  labor,  the  more  rapidly  will  that 
democracy  be  led  to  the  strong  man  who  can  deliver 
it  from  the  double  bane,  and  the  more  readily  will 
it  be  induced  to  delegate  its  power  to  him  for  pro 
tection  from  its  internal  enemies.  For  all  who  at 
tack  liberty  are  the  enemies  of  democracy,  how 
ever  specious  may  be  their  arguments,  however  un 
selfish  may  be  their  professions.  And  capital  used 
to  tyrannize  over  the  people,  and  labor  unions  em 
ployed  in  coercion,  are  equally  foes  to  the  true  free 
dom  which  men  look  for  in  the  United  States  and 
have  a  right  to  expect  that  they  shall  enjoy  in  its 
fulness. 

If  men  would  only  look  clearly  at  facts,  if  only 
they  would  reason  with  themselves  and  apply  their 
minds  to  a  study,  even  superficial,  of  the  history 
of  other  lands  and  other  societies,  they  would  under 
stand  that  no  surer  means  of  destroying  democracy 
can  be  found  than  turning  the  advantages  and  bless 
ings  it  is  so  fertile  in,  into  means  of  oppression- 
It  is  inevitable  that,  under  such  circumstances,  the 

339 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

people  should  turn  toward  the  government  for 
aid  and  succor,  and  this  is  regrettable  in  many 
ways.  It  is  not  desirable  that  the  Executive  should 
be  clothed  with  powers  so  ample  that  they  prac 
tically  amount  to  autocracy ;  it  is  bad  for  the  holder 
of  the  office  and  it  is  worse  for  the  noble  people  who 
commit  the  mistake.  It  leads  them  to  rely  upon 
force,  in  some  form,  instead  of  upon  the  due  appli 
cation  of  the  laws ;  it  teaches  them  to  forget  their 
own  responsibilities  and  to  place  them  upon  the 
shoulders  of  others ;  it  induces  them  to  forget  the 
cardinal  principle  of  democracy,  that  the  government 
is  of  the  people,  and  not  of  a  man  or  a  set  of  men, 
however  able,  distinguished  and  patriotic. 

Yet  the  tendency  in  the  United  States,  as  with  us, 
is  dangerously  in  this  direction.  Instead  of  cour 
ageously  and  intelligently  facing  the  problems — and 
in  all  conscience  they  are  weighty  enough  and  seri 
ous  enough — instead  of  striving  to  have  the  laws  so 
administered  and  enforced  that  they  shall  compel 
real  respect  and  instant  obedience,  men  are  more  and 
more  inclined  to  resort  to  what  they  are  pleased  to 
term  "paternalism"  in  government  but  is  really 
autocracy.  And  granting  that  it  were  not  the  in 
evitable  outcome,  granting  that  the  government  ran 
no  chance  of  degenerating  into  a  despotism  estab 
lished  by  the  consent  of  the  governed,  what  likeli 
hood  is  there  that  matters  would  be  improved,  when 
the  government  is,  after  all,  the  creature  of  the  vot 
ers?  If  the  unions  on  the  one  hand  and  the  cor 
porations  and  trusts  on  the  other  are  able  to  con 
trol  it  in  large  measure  through  the  influence  at 

340 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

their  command,  what  probability  is  there  that  in 
crease  of  power  in  the  Government  itself  would  bring 
about  real  and  permanent  improvement  in  the  con 
ditions  complained  of  as  unbearable?  Could  it  be 
assured  that  the  men  at  the  head  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Nation  would  always  be  thoroughly  disinterested, 
without  fear  and  without  reproach,  even  then  harm 
would  result  from  the  abandoning  of  the  duty  of 
the  people  itself  to  cure  the  ills  it  suffers  from. 

A  democracy  is  laden  with  greater  responsibilities 
than  a  monarchy,  even  than  a  so-called  constitu 
tional  monarchy  such  as  may  be  seen  in  some  parts 
of  the  continent  of  Europe.  That  it  has  greater 
responsibilities  is  a  part,  and  an  essential  part,  of 
its  existence.  The  government  which  is  of  the  peo 
ple  must  remain  a  government  by  the  people  and 
for  the  people,  and  not  one  administered  exclusively 
by  a  body  of  men,  no  matter  how  select,  how  well 
chosen,  how  well  qualified  for  its  task.  That  is  the 
point  which  must  be  pressed  home  to  the  minds  of 
all  men  in  a  democracy.  Their  political  education 
is  important ;  they  need  to  have  it ;  it  is  indispensable 
to  them.  They  must  be  made  to  realize  that  their 
fate,  the  fate  of  the  nation,  economically,  socially,  is 
in  their  hands,  and  must  remain  in  their  hands  unless 
the  whole  structure  and  principle  of  the  government 
are  to  be  altered. 

The  trusts  and  corporations  and  the  labor  unions 
are  too  selfish  and  too  narrow  in  the  view  they  take 
of  their  relations  to  each  other  and  to  the  great 
public.  A  democracy  is  a  brotherhood,  and  in  a 
brotherhood  there  must  be  continual  concession 

341 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  compromise  if  harmony  is  to  be  preserved.  It 
is  not  the  setting  of  one  class  against  another,  it 
is  not  the  creation  of  classes,  it  is  not  the  division 
of  a  large  part  of  the  population  into  capitalists 
and  workers  that  will  maintain  or  further  the 
democratic  ideas  on  which  the  Union  has  been  estab 
lished  and  by  which  alone  it  can  live  and  prosper. 

There  must  be  recognition,  and  very  practical 
recognition,  of  the  need  for  concord,  for  justice,  for 
the  firm  and  strict  application  of  the  laws,  for 
righteous  dealing;  for  thus  only  can  the  progress 
already  made  be  continued  and  increased  and  the 
permanent  happiness  and  welfare  of  the  citizens 
be  secured.  The  war  between  capital  and  labor,  for 
it  is  nothing  else,  is  harmful  in  the  extreme.  The 
laboring  man  is  justified  in  seeking  and  demand 
ing  improvement  in  his  condition,  already  so  greatly 
improved;  the  capitalist  is  justified  in  asking  pro 
tection  for  the  wealth  he  has  amassed,  but  neither 
capital  nor  labor  has  a  shadow  of  a  right  to  resort 
to  tyrannical  methods  in  order  to  gain  its  point. 

There  is  something  higher  in  the  country  than 
either  of  these  two  opposing  forces:  the  people 
themselves,  who  are  ground  between  the  upper  and 
the  nether  millstones.  There  is  something  vastly 
more  important  than  the  acquisition  of  wealth 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  as  the  phrase  goes, 
and  that  is  the  good  name  of  the  Nation.  There 
is  something  of  more  value  than  the  claim  of  the 
striker  to  prevent  others  from  taking  up  the  work 
he  has  abandoned  of  his  own  free  will,  and  that  is 
the  right  of  every  man  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pur- 

342 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

suit  of  happiness.  Destroy  that  right,  as  it  is 
being  destroyed  in  this  savage  conflict,  and  with 
it  is  destroyed  the  true  spirit  of  democracy;  pre 
serve  it  at  all  costs,  and  the  work  of  the  Fathers 
will  not  have  been  in  vain. 

The  cure  for  the  evil  is  plain :  it  lies  in  the  educa 
tion  of  all  citizens ;  not  merely  the  education  which 
takes  account  of  history,  in  fragmentary  and  rudi 
mentary  fashion,  not  merely  the  education  which 
gives  but  a  varnish  of  knowledge,  but  that  larger 
education  which  teaches  men  and  women  alike  their 
duties  toward  the  commonwealth.  In  that  educa 
tion  lies  at  once  the  hope  of  the  Republic  and  the 
salvation  of  democracy.  It  is  impossible  to  lay  too 
much  stress  upon  this  point.  It  is  the  important 
one,  the  point  on  which  depends  prosperity  in  the 
future,  not  material  prosperity,  but  that  high  and 
better  moral  prosperity  without  which  the  other  is 
empty  and  vain,  leading  only  to  corruption  and 
eventual  destruction. 

And  what  Briton,  at  the  present  time,  calmly 
observing  the  manner  in  which  government  has  been 
and  is  being  carried  on  in  his  own  dear  country, 
democratic,  as  is  the  United  States,  but  will  sorrow 
fully  reflect  that  the  same  dangers  threaten  his  land, 
the  same  causes  are  at  work,  the  same  tendency 
toward  autocracy  manifest? 

There  is,  however,  a  difference;  the  apathy  of 
our  people  is  infinitely  greater;  their  indifference 
to  vital  questions  is  much  more  marked;  their  ten 
dency  to  accept  evil  legislation  simply  because  the 
party  in  power  has  decreed  that  it  shall  be  accepted 

343 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

is  more  marked  than  the  same  fault  in  the  United 
States.  The  American  caucus  is  no  more  tyran 
nical  than  the  Parliamentary  whips ;  the  Adminis 
tration  no  more  determined  and  contemptuous  at 
times  of  the  rights  of  the  people  than  is  a  British 
Cabinet.  These  late  years  among  us  have  shown 
that  to  the  procrastination  of  the  Conservative 
party  to  push  through  measures  of  social  and  con 
stitutional  reform  unquestionably  called  for  by  the 
change  in  economic,  social  and  political  conditions, 
has  succeeded  the  insolent  attitude  of  the  Radical 
Coalition  toward  the  constituencies,  and  the  forcing 
through  of  measures  without  discussion  and  the 
bringing  of  the  country  to  the  verge  of  civil  war. 

Here,  as  in  America,  men  are  too  apt  to  think  and 
speak  only  of  their  rights  and  to  wholly  disregard 
and  ignore  their  duties.  And  it  is  a  source  of  com 
fort  to  the  writer  of  this  book  to  hear  other  voices 
raised  that  recall  men  to  a  sense  of  duty.  In  his 
Cambridge  lectures  on  Military  History,  the  Hon. 
J.  W.  Fortescue  said: 

"There  is  really  only  one  political  or  social  prin 
ciple  which  has  any  permanent  worth,  and  it  is 
expressed  in  the  homely  proverb,  'Give  and  take.' 

"What  is  the  civic  form  of  this  proverb?  It  is 
this :  No  rights  without  duties,  no  duties  without 
rights.  In  England  I  am  afraid — though  I  may  be 
wrong — that  for  some  time  past  there  has  been  too 
much  prating  of  rights,  and  too  little  reflection  upon 
duties ;  though  the  commonwealth  depends  for  its 
stability  upon  the  equal  recognition  of  both." 

The  dangers  which  threaten  the  success  of  demo- 
344 


THE    PERIL    TO    DEMOCRACY 

cratic  government  in  the  United  States  are  evident 
among  us.  The  remedy  in  either  case  is  the  same; 
recognition  and  fulfillment  of  duty  toward  the 
State;  direct  and  practical  interest  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  government;  determined  retention  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  voters  instead  of  con 
centration  of  power  in  the  hands  of  an  oligarchy. 


XIX 

THE    CONCLUSION 

What,  finally,  is  the  belief  of  the  observer  who, 
noting  the  strange  contradictions,  the  surprising 
differences,  the  peculiarities,  the  continuous  strug 
gle,  the  varied  influences  and  causes  at  work  among 
and  upon  a  people  compounded  of  so  many  nation 
alities  based  upon  a  sturdy  Anglo-Saxon  stock? 

That  the  popular  impression  that  the  United 
States  is  indeed  the  land  of  liberty  is  a  just  and 
true  one.  It  is  perfectly  certain  that  liberty,  as 
the  Englishman  understands  it,  is  not  as  large  or  as 
common  as  in  England;  it  degenerates  into  license 
and  lawlessness  at  times,  but  in  other  directions  it  is 
genuine  and  complete.  Every  nation  is  apt  to  have 
a  varying  conception  of  liberty.  To  the  American, 
to  the  native,  as  to  the  newly-arrived  immigrant, 
it  is  unquestionable  that  the  country  offers  the  form 
of  liberty  for  which  he  craves.  The  native  American 
sees  himself  guaranteed  the  political  independence 
which  is  so  dear  to  him ;  the  immigrant  beholds  him 
self  rid  of  the  trammels  which  bound  him  down 
in  his  own  land.  The  educated  European  who  makes 
his  home  in  the  Republic,  ere  long  learns  to  dis 
tinguish  between  the  merely  superficial  manifesta- 

346 


THE    CONCLUSION 

tions  of  the  American  form  of  government,  of  the 
American  character,  and  the  deeper  and  entirely 
sound  basis  of  both.  A  man  is  indeed  free  in  the 
United  States ;  whether  he  be  a  poor  wretch  seek 
ing  peace  and  the  chance  to  make  a  living,  or 
whether  he  be  in  easy  circumstances  and  enters 
business  or  one  of  the  professions.  He  can  speak 
his  mind;  he  can  aim  high  and  attain  success,  if  it 
be  in  him  to  succeed ;  he  is  not  troubled  by  obstacles 
due  to  tradition  or  to  convention ;  he  is  taken  for 
what  he  is  worth,  really  worth,  and  if  he  have  the 
steadiness  and  application  and  talent  which  insure 
mastery,  he  is  certain  to  win  it.  Nowhere,  as  in 
the  United  States,  is  it  so  true  that  a  man  can  carve 
his  way  for  himself.  Effort  and  ambition  are  ap 
proved,  and  when  the  reward  comes  it  is  not  grudged. 
It  takes  earnest  labor  to  reach  the  goal;  plenty 
of  it.  The  competition  is  keen  and  hard,  but  it  is 
all  worth  while,  for  the  triumph  ultimately  obtained 
is  a  personal  triumph. 

It  is  a  land  of  unbounded  possibilities  for  the 
worker,  no  matter  in  what  line;  of  unbounded  op 
portunities  for  the  sturdy  and  steady  man,  and  for 
the  resolute  woman.  Both  sexes  find  here  chances 
such  as  they  cannot  find  in  the  Old  World;  chances 
that  are  ready  to  be  availed  of;  and  men  and 
women  alike  discover  ere  long  that  the  secret  of 
success  is  work,  strenuous  work,  and  honesty,  and 
straightforwardness.  These  things  insure  the  gain 
ing  of  the  coveted  end,  and  they  are  good  things 
to  have. 

It  is  not  a  land  for  the  idle,  the  lazy,  the  in- 
347 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

capable.  These  will  inevitably  be  pushed  to  the  wall. 
Influence,  if  they  possess  it,  will  not  long  bestead 
them.  It  is  personal  worth  which  alone  tells  in  the 
end;  without  it,  and  the  determination  to  make  the 
most  of  it,  it  is  useless  to  affront  the  fight  for  life 
and  competency.  The  morally  weak,  the  intellec 
tually  feeble  go  down  at  once;  the  strong  alone  sur 
vive.  The  battle  of  life  is  a  reality  in  the  United 
States :  there  is  no  sitting  down  to  lament  the  hard 
ness  of  one's  lot ;  the  only  thing  to  do  is  to  strive. 
It  does  not  answer  to  be  content  with  one's  station 
in  life ;  that  is  not  the  way  to  succeed  in  that  coun 
try.  Men  and  women  must  ever  be  ambitious,  and 
determined  to  reach  higher  yet.  That  is  the  strenu 
ous  life  so  much  spoken  of.  It  is  true  that  it  is 
strenuous;  it  is  also  true  that  it  is  healthy  and  in 
spiring  life;  it  is  life  in  very  sooth,  albeit  it  lacks 
entirely  the  sweetness  and  restfulness  it  has  in  the 
older  countries  of  Europe,  in  the  highly  civilized 
lands  where  social  distinctions  have  set  almost  in 
surmountable  barriers  in  the  way  of  the  masses.  It 
is  a  life  of  continual  work,  of  unceasing  anxiety, 
but  one  feels  the  excitement  and  interest  of  it.  The 
stimulus  is  agreeable,  and  if  many  fall  by  the  way 
side,  spent  with  the  strain  of  it  all,  it  is  at  least  more 
satisfactory  than  slowly  rusting  and  weakening. 
To  the  man  of  action  the  United  States  is  a  true  El 
Dorado.  He  finds  there  a  congenial  atmosphere; 
competitors,  eager  and  keen ;  rewards  great  in  pro 
portion  to  the  sum  of  the  effort.  It  is  an  inspiring 
land. 

It  will  long  remain  so.     Many,  many  years  must 
348 


THE    CONCLUSION 

elapse  ere  the  sense  of  vigorous  manhood,  now  so 
strongly  experienced,  grows  faint  and  dim.  The 
land  is  vast;  the  development  of  it  will  occupy  men 
for  many  a  generation;  and  always  will  the  energy 
characteristic  of  the  race  which  inhabits  it  be  the 
distinguishing  trait.  For  countless  generations  will 
opportunities  present  themselves  to  the  able,  the  in 
telligent,  the  resolute;  for  years  unnumbered  will  It 
be,  as  are  the  Britains  beyond  the  seas,  a  country 
for  the  young,  for  the  brave,  for  the  hopeful.  And 
this  to  an  extent  which  the  stay-at-home  in  Europe 
can  never  understand,  for  it  is  out  of  the  question 
to  endeavor  to  comprehend  the  United  States  merely 
from  reading  about  it.  The  country  and  the  people 
must  be  seen  to  be  appreciated,  and  even  then  it  is 
not  certain  that  the  full  and  clear  perception  will  be 
obtained,  so  varied  are  the  aspects  of  the  one  and  the 
other,  so  manifold  the  differences  between  Europe 
and  America. 

The  United  States  is  in  no  danger  whatever  of 
turning  into  an  empire,  a  monarchy,  an  autocracy 
of  any  sort  or  description.  Amazing  as  is  the  ex 
tent  of  the  land,  numerous  as  the  population  is,  and 
steadily,  rapidly  growing  more  numerous,  which 
would  indicate,  or  appear  to  indicate,  the  inevitable- 
ness  of  a  change  in  the  form  of  government,  there 
is  no  prospect,  even  remote,  of  the  Americans  turn 
ing  from  their  chosen  system  to  try  the  effects  of  one 
outworn.  Democracy  has  laid  its  hold  upon  the 
Nation,  and  it  will  not  be  loosened.  This  for  two 
reasons :  the  first,  that  no  matter  how  strong,  how 
able,  how  unscrupulous  even,  a  Chief  Magistrate  may 

349 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

prove  to  be  in  the  future,  the  abiding  sense  of  the 
Nation  is  against  autocratic  power,  and  while  it  is 
certain  that  under  conditions  which  arise  from  time 
to  time,  there  is  more  than  a  willingness,  there  is 
indeed  a  determination,  to  clothe  the  President  with 
greater  powers,  it  is  equally  sure  that  the  country 
as  a  whole  is  ever  ready  to  curtail  these  powers  when 
it  becomes  desirable  to  do  so.  And  it  is  one  of  the 
distinguishing  features  of  the  American  character 
that  it  speedily  finds  the  way  to  carry  out  a  set 
purpose. 

The  main  object  of  increasing  the  powers  of  the 
Executive  is  to  enable  the  new  and  dangerous  prob 
lems  to  be  dealt  with,  but  already  it  is  becoming 
plain  that  the  deep  Anglo-Saxon  faith  in  the  utility 
and  reliability  of  the  courts  of  justice  as  a  prefer 
able  means  of  staying  and  destroying  oppression, 
is  part  and  parcel  of  the  belief  of  the  Nation. 

The  second  cause  is  the  feeling,  born  in  the 
breast  of  every  American,  that  it  is  a  sound  and 
wise  principle  that  office  shall  not  be  held  long  by 
any  one  man,  and  that  every  man  shall  have  the  op 
portunity  of  attaining  to  the  highest  offices  in  the 
land.  Any  tendency  to  autocracy  is  checked  by  the 
simple  fact  that  ambitions  are  too  numerous  in  the 
country,  that  the  aspirants  to  power  are  too  eager 
and  too  frequent  to  permit  of  the  concentration  of 
that  power  in  the  hands  of  one  man  or  a  small  group 
of  men,  or  to  permit  of  its  being  long  immobilized  in 
one  individual,  far  less  continued  in  his  family  or  in 
the  person  of  his  most  trusted  friends. 

The  democratic  feeling  that  all  sovereignty  re- 
350 


THE    CONCLUSION 

sides  in  the  people,  and  that  any  delegation  of  power 
can,  in  its  nature,  be  but  temporary  and  partial,  is 
vigorous  in  the  United  States,  and  it  is  the  great 
protection  against  any  real  change  in  the  form  of 
government.  As  for  the  objection  that  the  country 
is  becoming  so  vast  that  it  will  soon  be  impossible 
to  govern  it  under  democratic  principles  and  meth 
ods,  that  may  be  dismissed  without  much  discussion. 
The  inventions  of  the  present  day,  which  practically 
annihilate  space  and  permit  swift  communication  be 
tween  the  most  distant  points,  constitute  a  safeguard 
which  never  before  existed. 

Then  education,  whether  by  means  of  the  schools, 
the  colleges  and  universities,  or  the  press  or  the 
public  platform,  is  doing  its  share  to  strengthen  the 
democracy  by  enlightening  and  informing  it.  In  the 
development  of  education,  as  most  men  clearly  see, 
lies  much  in  the  hope  of  the  future.  And  the  love 
of  education  in  the  country  must  be  personally  ex 
perienced  to  be  fully  understood.  It  is  a  force  of 
the  first  magnitude,  which  must  be  reckoned  with  in 
any  prognostication  of  the  future  of  the  United 
States.  And  that  it  will  be  valued  daily  more  and, 
more  is  as  certain  as  that  the  sun  rises  and  sets. 
Education  is  an  essential  in  the  United  States ; 
something  that  everyone  insists  upon  possessing,  and 
the  means  of  obtaining  it  are  being  multiplied  daily. 
It  is  through  instruction  that  such  marvelous  prog 
ress  has  already  been  made ;  it  is  through  instruction 
that  even  greater  progress  will  yet  be  achieved.  For 
the  American  understands,  appreciates  its  value,  and 
is  ever  prepared  to  make  sacrifices  in  its  favor.  It  is 

351 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

not  with  him  an  object  of  party  controversy  or  re 
ligious  warfare:  it  is  a  natural  right  which  must  be 
satisfied. 

There  are  many,  both  in  the  New  and  in  the  Old 
World,  who  cannot  bring  themselves  to  believe  in  the 
value  of  education  for  the  masses,  and  who  point  to 
the  semi-educated  specimens  which  abound  in  proof 
of  the  evil  of  general  instruction.  No  one  will  deny 
that  a  little  knowledge  is  a  dangerous  thing,  and 
that  universal  education  in  the  United  States  has  its 
disadvantages ;  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
very  great  progress  has  been  made  which  would  have 
been  wholly  impossible  but  for  that  general  educa 
tion  of  the  multitude ;  that  the  unpleasant  results 
evidenced  in  the  coarseness  or  criminality  of  the  fevp 
are  infinitely  less  than  the  indubitable  benefits  con 
ferred  upon  the  race  which  has  been  singularly  ad 
vantaged  by  the  spread  of  instruction.  For  one 
failure  there  are  innumerable  successes,  and  no  mat 
ter  what  may  be  urged  against  universal  education, 
the  truth  remains  plain:  that  it  is  in  that  very 
education  of  the  masses  that  the  uplifting  must  be 
sought.  Without  education  it  is  impossible ;  there  is 
but  the  one  means  to  the  one  end ;  and  in  a  democratic 
country,  where  opportunities  are  freely  extended  to 
all,  it  is  education  which  is  the  prime  necessity.  In 
the  fact  that  the  American  people  clearly  perceive 
this  lies  the  conviction  of  the  ultimate  development 
of  the  Nation  into  one  of  the  most  remarkable,  if  not 
absolutely  the  most  remarkable,  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  It  is  not  necessary  to  emphasize  the  benefit 
to  the  community  at  large  of  developing  the  intelli- 

352 


THE    CONCLUSION 

gence  of  the  individuals  who  compose  it;  one  might 
as  well  urge  that  health  is  a  good  thing.  And  the 
Americans  are  not  to  be  turned  from  their  purpose 
by  any  fear  of  possible  failure ;  they  are  aware  that 
failures  must  always  occur  in  larger  or  smaller  pro 
portion,  but  these  are  invariably  overborne  where 
resolution  and  steadfast  purpose  are  present,  by  the 
triumphs  won. 

With  the  steady  growth  of  education  comes  the 
more  refined  atmosphere  which  in  its  turn  brings 
about  many  of  the  graces  of  life  at  present  not 
easily  discerned  in  American  society.  These  will 
certainly  flow  from  the  great  stream  of  knowledge, 
and  it  requires  no  prophet  to  foretell  that  ere  many 
generations  have  followed  one  another,  so  great  and 
marked  a  change  will  have  taken  place  that  it  will 
be  difficult  to  believe  that  there  ever  was  any  other 
condition.  The  spirit  of  democracy  is  progressive, 
not  retrogressive;  it  is  essentially  a  civilizing  prin 
ciple:  at  present  the  race  is  yet  in  the  stage  of 
fermentation  and  formation;  it  is  yet  occupied  with 
the  solution  of  very  pressing  problems,  but  it  will 
unquestionably  advance  to  a  conception  of  social  in 
tercourse  in  which  all  that  is  at  present  largely  con 
cealed  by  what  may  be  termed  faults  of  manners, 
will  shine  out  and  become  as  marked  a  characteristic 
as,  unfortunately,  mannerlessness  is  at  this  moment. 

The  very  increase,  daily  greater,  of  the  sense  of 
power  and  consequent  responsibility,  is  bound  to 
work  for  the  weal  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants. 
The  careful  observer,  who  does  not  allow  his  view 
to  be  clouded  by  merely  transitory  manifestations, 

353 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

sees  plainly  the  steady  onward  progress  of  society 
in  the  United  States ;  the  growing  feeling  for  all 
that  is  truly  good  and  noble.  Strange  would  it  be 
were  it  otherwise,  since  the  country  has  produced 
and  produces  now  so  many  men  and  so  many  women 
filled  with  the  highest  ideals,  imbued  with  the  purest 
conceptions  of  political  and  family  life,  endowed 
with  talent  and  ability ;  true  leaders  of  the  masses, 
which  in  their  turn  see  in  them  the  exemplars,  the 
types  of  the  highest  American  manhood  and  woman 
hood,  that — let  this  be  very  distinctly  said — is  the 
equal  of  highest  manhood  and  womanhood  in  the 
most  highly  civilized  lands  of  Europe. 

The  press,  which  is  very  far  indeed  from  being 
all  yellow,  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  factors  in 
the  progress  which  is  being  made.  The  perusal  of 
the  articles  which  day  after  day  appear  in  the  col 
umns  of  the  leading  papers  is  enough  to  prove  that 
the  best  journalists  of  America  are  in  nowise  in 
ferior  to  their  European  comrades  in  the  standards 
of  public  morality  they  support  and  advocate,  in 
the  force  with  which  they  express  their  opinions,  in 
the  purity  of  their  language,  in  the  understanding  of 
their  responsibilities  and  in  their  determination  to 
accomplish  what  is  their  duty:  the  enlightening,  the 
teaching  of  a  nation  of  free  men.  They  are  daily 
contributing  to  the  formation  of  a  strong  and 
healthy  public  opinion  and  public  courage  and  spirit. 
A  public  opinion  which  is  rightly  guided  and  which 
finds  expression  in  powerful,  but  moderate  form,  is 
the  sort  which  is  now  more  and  more  to  be  met  with. 
It  is  a  force  which  tells  already;  which  will  tell 

354 


THE    CONCLUSION 

yet  more  and  more.  It  is  the  outcome  of  the  sense 
of  responsibility ;  of  the  pride  in  the  country  and  the 
principles  of  the  government.  Men  are  understand 
ing  that  they  themselves  are  to  do  the  work  which 
lies  ready  to  their  hand,  and  that  it  is  to  be  done 
by  continuous  and  united  effort,  and  not  by  spas 
modic  or  individual  attempts.  Throughout  the 
country  this  is  the  case.  Everywhere  are  men  of 
highest  merit  preparing  to  come  forward,  or  actually 
presenting  themselves  to  discharge  the  duties  the 
citizen  owes  to  the  State.  And  the  people  gladly 
recognize  the  value  of  these  men;  they  honor  them; 
they  support  them,  and  surely  this  is  public  opinion 
in  all  its  beneficent  activity. 

Lawlessness  exists,  as  it  most  unhappily  does 
with  us,  in  the  form  of  disregard  of  law.  But  it 
is  with  this  as  with  so  many  other  things  that  re 
quire  alteration  and  reform:  it  is  most  patent  be 
cause  men  are  more  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the 
evil.  The  simple  fact  that  the  press,  that  public 
speakers,  that  statesmen,  are  daily  drawing  attention 
to  the  need  of  the  careful,  the  rigid  observance  of 
law,  is  in  itself  a  sign  that  the  day  of  lawlessness, 
of  disregard  of  law  is  coming  to  a  swift  end.  It  is 
not  one  solitary  voice  which  is  uplifted  here  and  there 
throughout  the  country;  it  is  a  chorus  of  voices, 
coming  from  the  press,  from  individuals ;  an  insis 
tent  demand  that  justice  and  its  administration  shall 
be  the  chief  purpose  of  all.  The  outbursts  against 
the  evils  of  the  abuse  of  law  as  at  present  seen,  are 
growing  in  number  and  gaining  in  strength.  Men 
are  resolved  that  their  courts  shall  be  respected 

355 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

and  their  decisions  carried  out.  They  care  not  for 
more  law;  they  demand  the  adequate  enforcement  of 
the  statutes  which  already  exist. 

The  courts  are  justifying  the  confidence  reposed 
in  them.  They  do  so  because  in  part,  public  opinion 
is  ranging  itself  on  their  side.  There  are  instances, 
of  course,  of  weakness:  the  jury  system,  the  treat 
ment  of  witnesses,  the  power  of  wealth,  the  venality 
of  many  lawyers,  the  intolerable  delays  brought 
about  by  skilful  splitters  of  hair  and  raisers  of  ob 
jections,  at  this  time  mar  the  administration  of 
justice;  but  these  evils  are  pointed  out  and  dwelt 
upon  by  the  press,  by  the  judges  themselves,  and  the 
people  are  beginning  to  understand  the  importance 
of  the  lessons  continually  taught  them.  The  ad 
mirable  conduct  of  certain  famous  cases  has  done 
an  immense  deal  of  good,  for  it  has  proved  that  the 
courts  are  entirely  to  be  trusted,  and  that  the  equi 
table  administration  of  justice  is  no  mere  theory,  no 
mere  imagination,  but  a  substantial  fact  on  which 
accuser  and  accused  alike  may  rely.  The  tendency, 
growing  happily  stronger,  is  to  have  recourse  to  the 
courts  rather  than  to  additional  legislation ;  to  trust 
them,  rather  than  the  blind  impulses  of  the  mob. 
In  a  word,  all  omens,  all  signs  point  to  the  permanent 
establishment  of  the  true  reign  of  true  justice  in  the 
country. 

And  this  connects  itself  with  a  yet  wider  field :  the 
international  peace.  The  people  of  the  United 
States  are  not  warlike,  in  the  sense  of  seeking  or 
desiring  war.  Their  habit  is  not  that  of  the  Euro 
pean  nations  who,  by  force  of  circumstances,  are 

356 


THE    CONCLUSION 

ever  considering  the  possibilities  of  imminent,  armed 
contest.  They  are,  on  the  contrary,  a  nation  ever 
relying  on  peace.  It  is  to  them  the  right  condition 
of  society.  There  are  jingoes  in  America  as  every 
where,  but  they  are  very  far  from  influencing  the 
Nation  as  a  whole.  And  it  is  not  merely  the  feeling 
that  war  is  harmful  to  commerce,  to  business,  which 
thus  leads  the  Americans  to  prefer  peace  to  combat. 
It  is  the  conviction  that  most  wars  are  quite  unjus 
tifiable,  and  that  most  of  them  can  be  avoided,  and 
should  be  avoided  in  exactly  the  same  way  that  con 
tinual  quarrels  between  individuals  are  avoided. 
Men,  in  their  intercourse  with  each  other  have 
ceased  to  draw  and  fight  on  the  slightest  provoca 
tion,  or  on  no  provocation  at  all.  And  what  is  com 
mon  sense  in  the  individual  is  no  less  common  sense 
in  the  Nation.  This  is  what  the  people  of  the 
United  States  see  quite  plainly.  It  is  so  simple,  so 
self-evident  that  it  makes  them  the  partisans  and 
champions  of  peaceful  methods.  They  will  not  suc 
ceed  in  putting  an  end  to  all  wars ;  they  may  even 
be  drawn  into  wars  themselves,  but  it  is  quite  certain 
that  this  will  not  be  the  case  until  after  every  effort 
has  been  made  to  avoid  the  arbitrament  of  the 
sword.  The  peace  idea  is  firmly  implanted  in  the 
American  breast:  the  idea  of  honorable  peace,  and 
the  American  leaders  of  the  American  people  know 
that  they  can  maintain  the  supremacy  and  the  for 
tunes  of  their  country  without  constant  resort  to 
the  mailed  hand. 

Not  only  this,  but  American  statesmen  have  shown 
and  show  a  courageous  determination  to  press  upon 

357 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

the  other  nations  of  the  world  broader  conceptions 
of  international  rights,  which  must  bring  about  a 
distinct  amelioration  of  conditions  in  times  of  war, 
especially  as  regards  neutrals.  Their  contentions, 
on  the  whole,  would,  if  adopted,  diminish  the  evils 
at  present  inseparable  from  war  between  two  great 
powers.  These  contentions  are  opposed  because  the 
diminution  of  the  evils  is  looked  upon  as  a  mistake : 
the  idea  still  holds  firm  that  the  more  horrible  war 
can  be  made  the  more  rapidly  will  the  parties  to  it 
tire  and  be  ready  to  make  peace.  But  when  one  re 
members  the  twenty-five  years  of  warfare  against 
Napoleon,  when,  assuredly,  the  horrors  of  war  were 
plainly  evident,  one  is  more  inclined  to  side  with  the 
advocates  of  the  American  ideas.  War  is  profitable 
still  to  one  side  or  the  other,  and  it  is  that  profit, 
albeit  less  than  in  former  centuries,  which  inclines 
nations  to  hold  to  ancient  views  and  to  reject  prog 
ress  in  a  humanitarian  direction.  But  backed  by 
the  weight  of  a  mighty  nation,  of  a  country  itself 
immensely  powerful,  and  plainly  destined  to  have  a 
preponderating  voice  in  the  settlement  of  world  af 
fairs,  the  American  and  not  the  European  idea  is 
the  one  that  will  almost  surely  prevail. 

And  when  the  constituent  elements  of  the  Amer 
ican  race,  as  it  is  even  now  being  formed,  are  taken 
into  account,  when  its  mingling  of  men  from  all  lands 
is  considered,  it  will  be  seen  how  the  very  number 
of  nationalities  must  tend  to  a  policy  of  peace  rather 
than  one  of  war.  It  is  eminently  true  that  the 
foreigner  who  becomes  naturalized — and  that  is  prac 
tically  every  foreigner — turns  into  an  enthusiastic 

358 


THE    CONCLUSION 

American,  but  he  generally  maintains  regard,  if  not 
affection,  for  his  native  land.  The  Irishman,  who 
remains  Irish,  may  earnestly  desire  to  see  the  might 
of  America's  arms  turned  against  England:  indeed, 
he  openly  declares  this  and  calls  America  "Greater 
Ireland,"  but  all  the  woes  and  grievances  of  Erin 
will  not  induce  the  bulk  of  the  population  to  resort 
to  war  merely  for  the  sake  of  satisfying  the  hatreds 
of  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Germans  do 
not  experience  any  dread  of  conflict  with  their 
Fatherland,  though  feeling  against  it  may  at  times 
run  high,  and  threatening  murmurs  arise  as  suspicion 
is  excited  by  the  Kaiser's  colonial  policy.  The  aver 
age  man  in  the  United  States  is  not  interested  in 
war;  the  ordinary  politician  is  not  in  love  with  it. 
The  attitude  of  the  Nation  is  a  powerful  factor  for 
the  preservation  of  the  world's  peace,  and  it  is  likely 
to  remain  so.  There  is  no  reason  apparent  why  there 
should  occur  any  change  in  this  regard.  Even  co 
lonial  expansion  is  at  a  discount  in  the  United 
States ;  mercantile,  commercial  expansion,  is  another 
matter,  and  it  is  seen  that  that  may  be  secured  with 
out  resort  to  fleets  or  armies. 

The  attraction  of  the  United  States  is  wonderful. 
Men  resort  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The 
Briton  comes  in  his  thousands ;  in  one  State  alone, 
and  one  of  the  smaller  states,  some  one  hundred 
thousand  Britons  are  domiciled.  The  great  majority 
of  these  have  become  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  good  citizens,  devoted  to  their  new  country  and 
serving  her  with  heart  and  soul.  Germans  innumer 
able,  Italians  and  Spaniards  in  droves,  Russians  and 

359 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

Slavs  past  counting,  Scandinavians  so  numerous 
that  they  form  entire  communities,  Asiatics ;  every 
race,  every  creed,  meet  in  the  land.  Most  of  these 
immigrants  naturally  belong  to  the  poorer  classes; 
that  does  not  mean  that  they  remain  in  the  condi 
tion  they  have  first  known:  they  rise  out  of  it,  be 
cause  in  America  man  can  rise.  They  reach  higher, 
they  become  ambitious,  and  their  ambition  is  grati 
fied.  To  them,  therefore,  the  United  States  and 
democratic  government  appeal  in  the  strongest  possi 
ble  way.  Question  them,  and  they  readily  declare 
their  preference  for  the  land  of  their  adoption. 
There  is  a  reason  for  this:  it  is  the  liberty  they 
enjoy,  it  is  the  opportunities  they  have  of  bettering 
themselves. 

But  it  is  not  alone  the  poor  and  the  wretched, 
(driven  from  lands  of  autocracy,  or  the  better-off 
who  have  heard  of  the  advantages  of  the  land,  who 
crowd  to  it.  The  institutions  of  higher  education,  of 
higher  technical  training  are  filled  with  many  men 
from  many  lands.  They  come  from  the  four  corners 
of  the  earth,  and  they  bear  with  them — when  they 
return,  which  all  do  not — the  memory  of  what  they 
have  seen,  of  what  they  have  experienced,  of  the  ad 
mirable  organization,  of  the  excellent  teaching,  of 
the  multiplied  chances  of  success,  of  the  freedom 
they  have  enjoyed,  of  the  hospitality  they  have  met 
with.  Many  of  these  never  go  back  to  their  native 
land:  they  settle  in  the  country,  immigrants  of  the 
utmost  value  to  the  people  among  whom  they  make 
their  home.  They  do  not  return  because — intelli 
gent,  able  to  judge — they  see  clearly  that  in  this 

360 


THE    CONCLUSION 

country  the  career  open  to  them  is  greater  than  any 
they  can  enter  in  their  former  homes.  They  find 
that  success  is  not  the  appanage  of  a  chosen  few, 
but  is  ready  to  the  hand  of  him  who  is  willing  to 
work.  And  they  remain. 

It  is  absurd,  to  put  the  thing  mildly,  to  speak,  as 
so  many  do  nowadays,  of  the  Americanizing  of  Euro 
pean  ideas  and  manners  and  customs,  using  the 
word  in  a  derogatory  sense.  There  is — and  it  has 
been  set  forth  unhesitatingly — a  very  great  deal  in 
America  that  is  offensive  and  regrettable.  None  own 
this  more  frankly  than  the  Americans  themselves, 
and  none  are  more  earnest  in  seeking  to  correct  the 
evils  and  abuses  they  perceive.  But  all  the  love  of 
sensation,  of  exaggeration,  all  the  habit  of  boast- 
fulness,  of  brag,  all  the  tendency  to  gossip  and 
scandal,  all  the  breaking  away  from  law  and  order 
are  not  things  typically  American  and  to  be  met 
with  in  the  United  States  only.  These  evils  have 
grown  to  greater  dimensions,  it  may  be,  in  America, 
but  they  exist  in  European  lands  as  well,  and  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  trend  of  opinion  is 
against  them  in  the  United  States  as  it  is  in  England, 
even  though  no  American  court  of  justice  has  yet 
smitten  the  offending  press  as  it  has  been  smitten 
in  Britain. 

The  worst  part  of  the  press  commands  a  regret 
tably  large  circle  of  readers;  doubtless  it  may  with 
truth  claim  "the  largest  circulation,"  but  that 
should  not  make  one  lose  sight  of  the  value  and 
power  of  that  better  part  which  influences  so  many 
thousands  of  minds  in  the  right  way.  There  is  love 

361 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

of  sensation,  but  the  jaded  appetite  of  the  reader 
refuses  now  to  be  more  than  lazily  stirred  by  the 
clamor  of  the  yellow  sheet;  sensation  is  discounted 
by  the  sensible,  even  if  eagerly  sought  by  the  multi 
tude.  And  the  sober,  the  sensible,  the  wise  do,  in 
America  as  in  other  countries,  have  influence  over 
the  public,  and  when  it  comes  to  deciding  on  a  leader 
it  is  rarely  that  the  people  take  him  from  the  ranks 
of  the  sensation-mongers.  They  do  do  so  from 
time  to  time,  and  invariably  repent  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes.  There  is  love  of  gossip,  but  who  shall  be 
audacious  enough  to  say  that  that  hunger  is  felt 
in  the  American  land  alone?  Where  does  it  not 
flourish?  Where  does  it  not  seek  its  food  of  scandal 
and  falsehood  and  misrepresentation? 

These  things  are  not,  then,  American  in  principle, 
any  more  than  they  are  English,  or  French  or  Ger 
man  or  Spanish  or  Italian.  They  are  attributes  of 
imperfect  human  nature,  and  they  have  developed 
greatly  in  the  United  States  because  circumstances 
have  favored  them.  It  was  not  ever  thus ;  it  will  not 
be  ever  thus.  The  peculiar  development  of  civiliza 
tion  is  nearly  as  much  responsible  for  the  so-called 
"Americanizing"  of  things  European  as  are  the 
American  people.  Similar  causes  have  acted  upon 
the  nations  of  Europe;  less  vigorously,  less  rapidly, 
no  doubt,  but  at  bottom  it  is  the  same  force  at  work 
and  it  produces  the  same  results. 

It  is  a  common  error  to  assume  that  the  peculiari 
ties  of  a  nation  are  the  essentials  of  its  character. 
In  the  case  of  the  Americans  it  is  taken  for  granted 
that  they  are  all  given  over  to  the  Demon  of  Wealth- 


THE    CONCLUSION 

at-any-cost;  that  they  are  the  slaves  of  restless 
inquisitiveness  and  well-nigh  irresistible  curiosity  and 
love  of  prying;  that  they  are  the  victims  of  uncon 
trollable  brag,  and  worshipers  of  the  Big  in  all  its 
forms ;  that  throughout  their  family  relations  runs  a 
streak,  more  than  a  streak,  of  disregard  of  sacred 
obligations.  There  is  a  basis  of  truth  for  all  this; 
just  as  there  is  a  similar  basis  of  truth  in  the  charge 
that  in  England  and  in  France  and  in  Germany  there 
are  men  dishonest  and  women  untrustworthy.  It  is 
always  easy  to  reason  from  the  instances  which  are 
brought  out  into  the  limelight  of  the  press  and  the 
courts.  If  one  studies  the  records  of  the  police 
tribunals  in  particular,  it  is  natural  that  a  low  idea 
of  the  morals  of  the  country  should  be  the  outcome. 
If  one  takes  for  granted  that  the  idle  and  vicious 
rich,  who  are  to  be  met  with  in  every  land,  are  the 
type  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  then  it  is  cer 
tain  that  a  false  judgment  will  be  passed.  And  not 
only  passed,  but  supported  by  proof,  drawn  from 
the  instances  referred  to. 

But  the  American  Nation  is  not,  surprising  as  it 
may  appear  to  many,  composed  exclusively  of  pluto 
crats  and  of  breakers  of  the  laws  of  God  and  man. 
These  exist;  their  presence  is  patent,  for  they  take 
care  to  keep  themselves  well  before  the  public,  and 
a  mistaken  notion  of  their  importance  leads  that 
part  of  the  press  which  busies  itself  with  such  things, 
to  keep  talking  of  them  as  though  they  were  Amer 
icans  of  the  Americans.  They  are  no  more  so  than 
the  similar  class  in  European  countries  is  typically 
English  or  French  or  German.  There  are  infinitely 

363 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

more  good  people  than  bad  in  the  United  States; 
there  is,  indeed,  no  comparison  between  the  numbers 
of  the  one  and  the  other  class.  There  are  innumer 
able  families  which  are  as  pure,  as  sweet,  as  blessed 
as  the  most  perfect  French  or  English  homes.  There 
are  thousands  to  whom  wealth  is  not  necessarily  the 
prime  desire  in  life,  but  honesty  and  uprightness  and 
morality;  these  form  the  root  and  backbone  of  the 
Nation.  Else  it  would  ere  this  have  destroyed  it 
self. 

Above  all,  in  America  man  stands  for  what  he  is 
worth.  Let  it  not  be  imagined  that  the  noisy  revel 
ers  who  day  after  day  fill  the  society  columns  with 
accounts  of  their  doings  and  follies  are  the  exemplars 
to  whom  the  youth  of  the  land  looks  up.  Far  from 
it;  they  are  estimated  at  their  real  valuelessness 
nine  hundred  times  out  of  a  thousand.  It  is  not  to 
them  that  young  men,  who  have  striven  hard  to  ob 
tain  an  education,  look  for  guidance  and  encourage 
ment.  The  very  strenuousness  of  the  struggle 
through  which  the  youth  of  America  is  compelled  to 
forge  to  the  front,  is  a  preservative  against  most 
of  the  vices  of  the  idle  and  rich.  Alongside  of  the 
plutocrats  who  squander  the  easily  gained  wealth 
stand  the  rich  whose  understanding  of  their  respon 
sibilities  is  perfect,  and  who  discharge  these  respon 
sibilities  without  sound  of  trump  or  blowing  of 
horn. 

The  American  is  apt  to  put  forward  all  that  is 
least  attractive  in  his  civilization.  It  is  easy, 
therefore,  to  imagine  that  that  civilization  is  rotten 
to  the  core:  the  opposite  is  the  truth;  it  is  sound. 

364 


THE    CONCLUSION 

The  habit,  gradually  diminishing,  of  making  much 
of  everything  that  goes  on  is  the  cause  of  the  er 
roneous  impression.  Attention  has  been  drawn  too 
largely  to  the  mere  material  progress  of  the  coun 
try;  too  little  has  been  paid  to  its  marvelous  prog 
ress  morally  and  intellectually.  There  are  other 
things  American  besides  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  be 
sides  the  disregard  of  law,  besides  the  heedlessness 
of  the  sanctity  of  marriage.  There  is  the  real  equal 
ity  of  opportunities,  unknown  to  a  similar  degree 
anywhere  else  in  the  wide  world,  save  in  countries 
such  as  Canada,  the  Cape  and  Australasia — new 
countries  also;  democratic  countries  also.  There  is 
the  love  of  instruction;  the  readiness  to  make  great 
sacrifices  for  the  acquisition  of  education.  There  is 
the  patriotism  which  manifests  itself  not  in  shouting 
or  in  the  exploding  of  crackers,  but  in  the  cult  of 
the  ideals  of  the  Founders  of  the  Republic,  in  the 
private  and  amazing  beneficence  of  individuals;  in 
the  reverence,  growing  every  day,  for  the  memorials 
of  the  past.  There  is  the  uplifting  of  the  status  of 
woman,  that  is  also  carried  to  a  point  as  yet  unat- 
tained  by  any  European  country  and  which  is  go 
ing  on  steadily  and  surely. 

These  things  are  eminently  American,  as  is  the 
freedom  of  speech  and  the  freedom  of  judgment,  as 
is  the  cordiality  one  meets  with  everywhere,  the 
encouragement  given  to  the  willing  worker,  the  dis 
regard  of  circumstances  which,  in  other  countries, 
militate  against  the  outsider. 

Let  the  United  States  be  fairly  judged;  let  their 
people  be  looked  at  not  in  the  columns  of  a  sensa- 

365 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

tional  press  alone  or  in  the  deeds,  so  oft  reprehen 
sible,  of  a  small,  a  very  small  section  of  the  popula 
tion,  but  in  their  homes,  in  their  daily  intercourse, 
in  their  institutions  of  learning,  in  their  innumerable 
establishments  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  the  sick 
and  the  crippled,  and  the  ignorant,  and  then  one  will 
gain  a  clearer  idea  of  what  the  country  is  and  of 
the  future  yet  in  store  for  it. 

Let  the  steady  growth  of  sound  public  opinion  be 
taken  into  account,  as  is  not  usually  done ;  observe 
the  way  in  which  day  after  day  develops  the  sense 
of  responsibility,  individual  and  national;  note  the 
manner  in  which  men  of  great  parts  and  noble  char 
acter  are  coming  forward  more  and  more  to  share 
in  and  direct  the  Government,  and  it  will  be  con 
ceded  that  not  only  is  the  United  States  far  from 
being  unable  to  correct  the  evils  which  are  acknowl 
edged  to  exist,  but  that  there  is  not  the  faintest 
reason  to  despair  of  the  greatest  Republic  the  world 
has  seen:  the  home  of  millions  of  earnest,  true  men 
and  women ;  the  hope  of  a  humanity  yet  unborn. 

The  hope  of  a  humanity  yet  unborn ! 

For  below  the  strife  of  the  multitude,  below  the 
seething  of  passions,  the  sweeping  of  the  mad  selfish 
ness,  the  striving  after  power  for  individual  satis 
faction;  below  the  contention  of  oposing  forces  of 
capital  and  labor;  deep  below  the  bitter  poverty 
that  blasts  human  lives,  and  the  squalid  splendor  of 
shameless  corruption  and  sin,  that  brazenly  flaunts 
itself;  below  all  the  passing,  ephemeral  manifesta 
tions  of  the  littleness  of  man  and  the  frailty  of  his 
works,  lies,  clear  to  the  sight  of  him  who  cares  to 

366 


THE    CONCLUSION 

fathom  the  profound,  the  living  truth  that  "all  men 
are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among 
these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
That,  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  insti 
tuted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed." 

These  immortal  words,  penned  by  patriots,  are  not 
prized  by  their  descendants  alone,  by  the  untold 
millions  who,  in  successive  generations,  have  fore 
gathered  to  them  in  the  land  they  set  free ;  they  are 
believed  in  by  all  thinking  men  the  world  over ;  they 
form  the  precious  creed  of  all  who  seek  the  welfare 
of  humanity,  the  steady  progress  of  the  human  race. 
Not  in  one  age,  not,  perhaps,  in  many  ages,  will  they 
bear  their  full  fruit,  but  surely  will  they  eventually 
bear  it,  for  they  stand  as  a  revelation,  as  they  stand 
as  a  declaration. 

In  the  land  where  they  blazed  like  Heaven's  own 
light  in  the  time  of  storm  and  stress,  they  have  al 
ready  been  greatly  realized;  they  will  yet  be  better 
realized,  better  understood,  better  taken  to  heart. 
The  inmost  soul  of  them  is  passing  into  the  soul  of 
the  mighty  Nation  that  is  being  welded  out  of  the 
innumerable  elements  the  wide  world  has  furnished; 
the  children  of  the  next  generation  will  fathom  them 
more  deeply  than  those  of  the  present,  and  they  who 
shall  come  after  them  in  the  future  years  shall  make 
them  clearer  yet.  In  them,  in  the  truth  they  con 
tain,  has  lain  the  secret  of  the  progress  of  the  Na 
tion;  in  that  same  truth,  made  more  fully  manifest, 
brought  nearer  to  the  understanding  of  everyone, 

367 


AMERICANS    AND    THE    BRITONS 

lies  the  hope  of  the  coming  generations,  of  the  many 
nations,  not  in  one  hemisphere  or  the  other,  but  the 
broad  earth  over.  As  the  meaning  of  them  sinks 
deeper  into  the  hearts  and  souls  of  men,  will  men 
proceed  farther  on  the  road  they  are  traveling 
now:  the  road  to  perfect  equality,  to  true  life,  to 
genuine  liberty,  to  sound  conception  of  happiness. 
Great  as  has  been  the  onward  advance,  greater  will 
it  be,  for  each  year  makes  plainer  the  power  of  the 
truth.  It  is  active  at  this  moment;  it  has  built  up 
the  land  and  its  people ;  it  has  in  itself  the  virtue  to 
correct,  to  destroy  the  evils  that  are  the  consequence 
not  of  the  democratic  principle,  but  of  the  wrong 
interpretation  of  it,  or  of  the  return  to  outworn 
creeds  and  threadbare  tradition,  that  can  but  clog 
the  feet  of  those  who  would  press  forward  to  the 
glorious  goal.  It  is  the  truth  which  has  set  men 
free ;  which  makes  even  the  humblest  look  up  in  hope, 
the  faint  take  courage,  the  brave  hurry  on  with  re 
newed  effort.  It  has  built  up  a  nation  where  man 
may  carve  out  his  own  way,  confident  that  his  re 
ward  will  come;  it  has  destroyed  the  old  lines  of 
division,  and  broken  down  the  parting  walls.  The 
path  is  clear  for  the  wayfarer;  the  road  free  to  the 
traveler.  Each  man  may  go  forward,  in  the  measure 
of  his  strength,  to  the  attainment  of  his  hopes. 

And  it  has  done  and  will  do  more.  It  is  the 
proclamation  of  the  solidarity  of  mankind.  Each 
works  not  for  himself  alone,  but  for  all  the  others 
likewise.  It  makes  all  citizens  share  in  the  work  of 
the  State;  it  makes  them  all  understand  that  they 
have  a  duty  to  others  besides  themselves:  to  the 

368 


THE    CONCLUSION 

family,  the  city,  the  commonwealth.  It  will  grow 
and  grow  stronger  and  brighter  and  more  penetrat 
ing,  and  in  the  centuries  humanity  will  look  back 
and  be  grateful,  for  with  the  inspiring  breath  of  it 
man  renews  his  belief  in  his  own  nobility,  in  his  own 
high  mission. 

What  matters  it  that  imperfections  and  blemishes 
still  exist;  that  real  and  great  evils  still  prevail? 
These  will  disappear,  slowly,  to  be  sure,  but  dis 
appear  as  other  blemishes,  other  imperfections,  other 
evils  have  slowly  disappeared  in  ages  gone  by.  It  is 
not  the  individual  atoms  that  count:  it  is  the  blazing 
glory  of  the  sun  that  amazes,  and  in  the  progress  of 
the  race  it  is  not  the  temporary  clouds  that  should 
arrest  the  gaze;  it  is  the  essential  advance,  the  un 
deniable,  splendid  onward  march  that  alone  is  truly 
characteristic,  truly  typical. 


(1) 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OP  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


^      3P  V. 

DEC  20  1939 

l^Maids/u^ 

J  Jymn 

REC'D  LD 

MAY  15  1959 

LD  21-95m-7,'37 

YB  37139 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

T 


